Nash StuartHon STUART NASH (Minister of Tourism): Yesterday our Prime Minister announced the implementation of quarantine-free travel with Australia. As a trans-Tasman bubble that will allow a free flow of travel between our two countries starting on 19 April. I must admit never in my time have I seen such an outpouring of love for Australia from Kiwis up and down this country. I am a little bit concerned that when the Wallabies play the All Blacks it won't start with a haka; it might start with a team cuddle.But anyway it is great news for our tourism industry and the operators many of whom have done it hard over the last 12 months. And if there is one industry in particular that has really taken one for the team it has been the tourism industry. I visited a number of the hotspots that have a significant reliance on international tourism—I'm talking about Queenstown; I'm talking about Te Ānau the glaciers Kaikōura for example. They understand why we've done what we've done in terms of keeping our population safe and that's what they tell me. They say We understand we need to do this." But goodness me they have waited for this Australian bubble and they are very very pleased we are here.But the reason we are in a position to be able to open up our international borders is because of the fantastic work that this Government and the people of New Zealand have done in terms of managing the global pandemic. I've got a very good friend in Paris at the moment and have talked to her a bit. They are in lockdown again and she has said to me "Goodness me I'd love to be in New Zealand." I was on an OECD call recently and all 38 people from around the world said "If only we could be in New Zealand." But they can't. We are here and we live in paradise and of that there's no doubt. But I do want to thank Kiwis for the way that they have all responded fantastically. In fact the work that Tourism New Zealand has done in Australia shows that 95 percent of Australians view New Zealand's response positively and this is only enhancing our brand in Australia when Australians are looking to book a holiday over here.What will the bubble mean to the New Zealand tourism industry? Well we have already seen a significant interest from Australians to travel here. Already for example over 11000 Australians have visited newzealand.com compared to a daily average of 2000. Of those Australians surveyed by Tourism New Zealand around 77 percent have said that they will come here for a holiday. That compares to the other quarter who say they're coming to visit friends and family. So Australians want to come here. They want to go on a holiday; they want to spend money in our country. Over half Australians surveyed say they are motivated to have a holiday that includes fun and engagement—56 percent—and to relax and to refresh—David Seymour: What about the other 44?Hon STUART NASH: Mr Seymour maybe you should relax and refresh just a little bit as well—just chill out which is—SPEAKER: Order!Hon STUART NASH: I was responding to—anyway.SPEAKER: Order! It pays not to—it pays not to.Hon STUART NASH: It's a great opportunity for tourism operators and small businesses that often rely on tourism as well to offer an experience that will appeal to all Australian visitors.In 2019 Australians spent around $2.7 billion in New Zealand. However a report released by the Australian Treasury in January of this year showed that Australian businesses and households had saved around $200 billion during the pandemic. That's $200 billion. So I suspect that what we will see when the borders open is a surge in tourism in the way that New Zealanders travelled when we came out of lockdown and New Zealanders didn't stop travelling. And let's not forget however that domestic tourism has historically made up around 60 percent of the total tourism market. And when we asked New Zealanders to "Try something new New Zealand." they did. And Queenstown for example experienced over a 70 percent increase in domestic spend in January 2021 compared to January 2020. But I acknowledge that the people of Queenstown have done it tough and overall spend in Queenstown was down by about 34 percent due to the lack of international visitors even though there was an increase in domestic spend of over 70 percent. This is why the mayor of Queenstown Jim Boult said upon the announcement of the bubble yesterday and I quote "For many many businesses this is survival. This is the thing that will keep businesses afloat … I … cannot express … how happy I am at today's announcement. This [is the thing that] will make a really big difference for those people who have been struggling."Tourism Industry Aotearoa said and I quote "Travel operators from around the country are breathing a sigh of relief. … [They] can now take bookings with confidence and scale up their staffing. … The timing means that ski regions in particular will receive a boost in the coming months [as] in normal times more than 70 percent of the overseas visitors who ski in New Zealand are from Australia." And Business Events Industry Aotearoa New Zealand has said and I quote that "This is much-deserved relief for our business events industry … Business events are planned and booked well in advance and [this] news will give Australian organisers the confidence needed to plan … their events in New Zealand not just for this year but further ahead."I have also seen and received a number of messages and reports from the Canterbury chamber of commerce airports Ngāi Tahu all of whom have echoed the sentiment that they are over the moon with this. But the only reason I would like to reiterate we are in this is because the Government has taken a health response. We have been conservative in the way that we have responded to COVID but as a consequence of the health response it means that we have had very few deaths and we are actually held up as an exemplar globally for the way that we have managed the pandemic.This will not be all one-way traffic. This is not just about Australians coming to New Zealand. We have to also be aware that there will be New Zealanders who go across to Australia. And whilst Australians spent about $2.7 billion in New Zealand in 2019 New Zealanders also spent about $2.1 billion in Australia. New Zealanders will travel. I take my hat off to the regional tourism organisations (RTOs) who have done an amazing work in attracting New Zealanders to travel domestically and I would especially like to acknowledge Hamish and the team at Tourism Hawke's Bay our local RTO who really did an amazing job of attracting Aucklanders and Wellingtonians into Hawke's Bay and who will now shift their focus not just from domestic tourism but to Australia. But I also understand that there will be Aucklanders and Wellingtonians—who in the past travelled to Hawke's Bay to experience our fantastic wine our food our art deco our wonderful Hawke's Bay culture—who will now decide to go to Sydney for the weekend who will take a holiday in Melbourne who will go to the Gold Coast. So we do recognise that even though Tourism New Zealand believes that this will contribute about a billion dollars—about a billion dollars—to our economy by the end of the year which is absolutely fantastic it won't be one-way traffic.The other thing I will also say is that Tourism New Zealand over the last 12 months has been doing a lot of work in terms of keeping our brand alive and priming the Australian market ready for when the borders are open. They're about to kick off an amazing campaign about "Stop dreaming Australia and get over here." I've seen it—it's a really clever campaign. In fact you know Tourism New Zealand are famous for their campaigns and I would argue the 100% Pure New Zealand campaign is probably the world's global preeminent tourism campaign. But they're going to get Australians across here in a way that I don't think we have seen before because of course there's a whole lot of pent up demand in Australia; there's only one place to go: it is New Zealand.But what I would say to tourism operators is that there are things that they can do to make the Australian experience really worthwhile so they head back home and they tell all their mates and cobbers to come back over to this side of the Ditch. First of all when we start vaccinating the general population I would urge tourism operators to ensure that in fact their workers get the vaccine as well because they will be front-facing. This will be important. We have to offer an experience that plays into our global brand and I will admit that I have been critical in the past that some of the operators have been guilty of paying minimum wages providing no training whatsoever and not offering the level of experience that I think that New Zealanders should be offering to our overseas guests. Train your staff get your staff ready get them prepared because when these Australians come over they will be spending money in our economies. They will be supporting New Zealanders so we need to ensure that the experience that they get—the experience New Zealand delivers—is absolutely 100 percent first-class.In summing up I think this Australian bubble announcement will be fantastic for the New Zealand tourism industry. It will get the industry through to the end of the year. It'll get the industry through until the international borders open and until this time this will provide a much-needed boost to an industry that has done it incredibly hard. Thank you very much."