On February 3, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern led government announced New Zealand's five-stage plan to re-open the border, commencing from February 27.
The NZ border will re-open to vaccinated Kiwis and other current eligible travellers from Australia at 11.59 pm on February 27 without staying in MIQ and to the same groups from the rest of the world only two weeks later on March 13. Also, from March 13, the border will open to skilled workers earning at least 1.5 times the median wage as well as for Working Holiday Scheme visas.
From April 13, the border will open to current offshore temporary visa holders, who can still meet the relevant visa requirements and to up to 5000 international students for semester two. Further class exceptions for critical workforces that do not meet the 1.5 times the median wage test will be considered in this stage.
In stage 4, in July, the plan is to have borders open for anyone from Australia and visa-waiver travel.
In the last stage 5, the government is hopeful that the border re-opens to visitors from anywhere in the world and all visa categories fully re-open.
Despite the announcement, people are still doubtful that the government will stick to its promise of re-connecting NZ to the world.
One of the reasons for people doubt is the fact that even on November 24 2021, Jacinda Ardern announced a border re-opening plan that stated that fully vaccinated New Zealanders and other eligible travellers can travel to NZ from Australia without staying in MIQ from 11:59 pm on January 16, 2022, and from February 13 for rest of the world, but the Omicron outbreak in NZ led to the postponement of the re-opening.
When Indian Weekender contacted Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins regarding the apprehensions that people have regarding the border re-opening going ahead as planned, he said, "The first two of the five steps in our re-connecting New Zealand strategy are now as certain as it's possible to be in the context of Covid-19.
“That means that Kiwis and current eligible travellers will be able to come to New Zealand from any country without going through MIQ from March 13.
“From that date, we will also start re-opening Working Holiday Visa schemes. This will supply urgently needed workers for the tourism, hospitality, wine and horticultural sectors and provide some much-needed visitor spending.
"Also, from March 13, we're simplifying the application process for the critical worker border exception. Skilled workers with job offers paying at least 1.5 times, instead of double, the median wage will be able to come in without the need to demonstrate that their skills aren’t readily obtainable in NZ.
"The dates for steps three, four and five are, as has been carefully set out, not yet finalised. They could be brought forward, depending on factors including the pace at which visas can be processed and the impact of Omicron in NZ through February and March."
Indian Weekender spoke to people from the community about whether they trust that borders will actually re-open as per the announcement.
South Auckland-based Kiwi Indian Rohan says that an assurance from the Prime Minister saying that the re-opening plan will not change is needed no matter what. He says, “I want a guarantee from Jacinda Ardern that she will not change her mind to re-open border irrespective of any new variant and irrespective of any new domestic outbreak. I also want assurance that she will not separate India as she did before by putting it at high risk and telling people coming from India that they will still need to go through MIQ. It is only then that I will book my ticket to my hometown of Delhi.”
Gurjit Kaur, a resident of Papatoetoe, who wants to travel to India to meet her family, says, "Though I would love to bank on and believe that border opening will happen as announced. But the previous experiences with this administration tells me to curb my enthusiasm because you don't know when Jacinda Ardern will change her mind.”
Another Kiwi-India, Neha Sharma, says, "To be honest, as much I want to believe that the borders will open as per the schedule. But there is something that is stopping me from booking my ticket. I am scared to leave NZ without booking a MIQ slot in case the rules revert while I am offshore”.
We also checked with the travel sector about whether people have been planning travels ever since the announcement was made.
Victoria Courtney, General Manager of Product, Flight Centre Travel Group NZ, says, "Following the government's announcement on February 3, 2022, regarding when New Zealand's border will re-open, within a day Flight Centre saw a 75 percent increase in travel enquiries compared to the day prior and in-store bookings were up by just over 60 per cent in that same period.
“The more popular destinations (other than domestic and the Cook Islands) were London, Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne. Additionally, we had several bookings to Mumbai and Delhi.
“We expect a small amount of hesitation from the public, considering the re-opening plan has been changed by the government before. Still, we expect traveller confidence to grow even further once February 28 comes around. We have plenty of customers desperate to re-connect with family and friends and many hanging out for an overseas holiday. It's exciting that travel is finally returning in 2022.”
Pradeep Kumar of Eco Travels feels that there is clearly a lack of trust regarding this government adhering to its border reopening dates. Sharing his thoughts at our show Weekender@5, he says, “We are excited and looking forward to a great time going ahead. However, truth is that people still do not have full trust in this government's announcement about the border opening dates. The reason behind it is that the government did announce the border reopening plan a couple of months ago, but then it went back on its words after Omicron hit the world. They kept people without any answers from December till January. So, now when they announced new dates, most of the people are not trusting and they're still thinking that there may be a date change again. At present, people are just calling us like and we are receiving heaps of calls just for the information. But for around 90% of the calls, they just say that we'll wait for some more time like maybe one more or two more months. Then we plan our travel because we don't want to get stuck without any answers and things like that.”
“Earlier, when the government announced dates in November, we did a lot of bookings as people had belief in the government but since they did not stick up to that, the trust level has deteriorated.”
Rob Beecher from the Global Travel Network, too, acknowledged that there has been a sudden increase in queries from clients who wish to travel to India. “Our travel agents have been inundated with queries from customers wanting to reunite with their families in India from the minute the Prime Minister committed to reopening the border. There is a lot of pent-up demand which is now materialising. With changing border restrictions, airline schedules, testing, and quarantine requirements, most travellers now recognise the value of booking through a travel agent who has the expertise to navigate through these complexities and is always on hand to assist if there are last-minute disruptions along the way.”