South Island tourism operators are nervously awaiting the re-opening of the trans-Tasman bubble as they miss out on thousands of Australian visitors a day.
It comes after the Government on Saturday paused quarantine-free travel with all of Australia for three days as the New South Wales community Covid-19 outbreak continues.
The pause was from 10.30pm Saturday to 11.59pm tomorrow - just as school holidays across the ditch are about to start.
NZ Ski chief executive Paul Anderson this morning told Breakfast his bookings were looking "really strong" for an influx of visitors over that holiday period.
"For the first week of the Australian school holidays very strong, for the second week we were almost booked out for snow sports lessons," he said.
"Probably expecting between 4000 and 6000 a day on the Queenstown ski fields, so with New South Wales out of the picture now that would be cut in half, we just have to keep a watching brief and hope that the rest of our mates can get their way over when the pause is lifted but pretty nervous about that like many.
"That big Australian market is really what keeps the town going, it really lifts the visitation."
It means Australians are now scrambling to rebook dates to visit New Zealand's hotspots, but it's leaving tourism operators with empty spots for the time being.
"I think like a lot of businesses in this part of the world we're gutted, we're gutted about what's happened, we're gutted for our business, gutted for our community and gutted for our mates over in Aussie that they can't get over here and enjoy what we've got to offer," Anderson said.
Meanwhile, Heli Ski's Hugh Barnard said while there was concern from customers about borders shutting down during their visit, there was positive feedback that they're still keen to come at a later date.
"Our busy time tends to be August into September so we're hoping that things will change by then," he said.
Anderson added that NZ Ski's 900 Queenstown staff would also be busy during New Zealand's upcoming school holidays.
"We still get a lot of people from the North Island, but it will be a lot quieter if we can't get that travel resumed," he said.
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