Opening trans-Tasman bubble quickly could pump $1 billion into NZ economy this year

Opening a trans-Tasman travel bubble within the next month could pump a billion dollars into New Zealand's economy by the end of the year.

That's down from the $2.7 billion the nation got from Australian tourists in 2019, but Tourism New Zealand points out we're partway through the year and there could be some hesitancy among holidaymakers.

“As holiday arrival starts to ramp up, people come over here for school holidays and into the winter breaks and then looking forward into kind of October and towards Christmas — that's when you get more holiday visitors," Tourism New Zealand chief executive René de Monchy said. 

"So we expect that spend to sort of ramp up over time.”

International visitors spend around twice as much as domestic travellers.