The majority of Kiwis want New Zealand’s borders to open now to international tourists and visitors, as long as they test negative for Covid on arrival, the latest 1News Kantar Public Poll has revealed.
The gates have been shut to overseas tourists since 2020, however the Government last month revealed new dates for the border to open, at the time estimating about October 2022 for international tourists. Since then the phased reopening was brought forward for Kiwis around the world to return to New Zealand.
Those polled were asked, "Do you think New Zealand should open up our borders to overseas tourists and visitors now, as long as they test negative on arrival?"
There was 75% who answered yes, 20% who said no, and 5% either did not know or refused to answer.
The groups of people who were more likely than average (75%) to want the borders to open up were people with annual incomes of more than $100,000 (87%), ACT and National supporters (86%), and men (78%).
The people who were more likely than average (20%) to not want it to open up to tourists and visitors were Northland residents (38%), Pacific Peoples (32%), Māori (29%), people with annual household incomes up to $30,000 (27%), women aged 35-54 (26%) and Labour supporters (26%).
The public support is a positive for our tourism sector.
Winter is on the horizon at Cardrona Alpine Resort near Queenstown where it is hoped overseas skiiers and snowboarders can finally hit the slopes.
RealNZ chief executive, which owns the ski field, Stephen England-Hall, said "whether that's totally opening up fully or just to Australia, it'd have a significant impact on the coming winter."
Wellington store, Possum Boutique, relies heavily on tourists who bring in 80% of the revenue.
Owner, Carola Ortiz, said "it would be huge [if the border opens again]. We are really holding on for those customers coming back... all those cruise ships that come, they love our stock."
Not to mention New Zealand's struggling hospitality businesses.
Auckland Restaurant Association's, Krishna Botica, said "we're not going to make it to October at this rate. Not without Kiwis' help, it's very hard for us to understand why tourists are being held off until October. It's very, very, very opaque for us."
It's not just tourism that would benefit but exporters too.
Export NZ's Catherine Beard said "the passenger tickets make the air cargo affordable, so until we can open properly, that's still going to be challenging, even currently with government support, it's about three-times more expensive to send air cargo."
As for the health side of the conversation, epidemiologist, Professor Michael Baker, believes it is possible to open our borders in the next one to two months.
"I think it is the change in disease burden in New Zealand, so once we are through this intense Omicron wave then I think we can basically allow anyone in who is vaccinated, who has tested before travel, then obviously we have a system of testing on arrival here."
Covid-19 Response Minister, Chris Hipkins, told 1News in a statement, "the border is already open to New Zealanders and will be for many visa holders from Monday."
"We've already said we are likely to bring the dates forward for tourists to help accelerate our economy."
"The health advice remains that we should wait until we get past the peak of the outbreak to open much more widely. Cabinet will consider the next steps in the context soon."
A much-needed relief for a wide range of sectors who are still hoping the opening dates will be brought forward.
Between March 5-8, 2022, 1000 eligible voters were polled by mobile phone (500) and online (500). The maximum sampling error is approximately ±3.1%-points at the 95% confidence level. For party support and preferred Prime Minister, percentages have been rounded up or down to whole numbers. The data has been weighted to align with Stats NZ population counts for age, gender, region, education level and ethnic identification. The sample for mobile phones is selected by random dialling using probability sampling, and the online sample is collected using an online panel.
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