Coronavirus: New Zealand bubble burst ‘a heavy blow to travel’

The travel industry has suffered another blow to confidence after the sudden halt to the one-way NZ travel bubble.

Health Minister Greg Hunt in Canberra on Monday. Picture: Martin Ollman

In another blow for the travel industry, Australia has called a 72-hour halt to its one-way bubble with New Zealand after a returning resident there tested positive to a highly infectious South African strain of COVID-19.

The woman completed 14 days of hotel quarantine in Auckland on January 13, and then visited up to 30 sites in New Zealand’s north before testing positive on Saturday January 23.

As a result, anyone who arrived into Australia from New Zealand since January 14 has been urged to get tested, and self-isolate until the results are known. New arrivals will go into two weeks’ mandatory hotel quarantine.

Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt said the immediate changes were made with “an abundance of caution” based on the recommendation of the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee.

He indicated it was possible the 72-hour halt could extend to 14 days if more cases were detected.

Tourism and Transport Forum chief executive Margy Osmond said she understood health had to be the No 1 priority but for the sake of business and industry, more certainty was needed.

“To be honest, this kind of decision will be a sledgehammer to business and consumer confidence, in the same way the state border closures have been,” she said. “All we’re asking for is a little consideration around when and how quickly these things happen.”

Passengers on a Qantas flight scheduled to depart Auckland a couple of hours after the Australian government’s announcement, were being given the option not to travel, a spokeswoman said.

Ms Osmond said if the travel industry had to face this sort of uncertainty in “an ongoing way”, the federal government must ensure there was ongoing payroll support for workers.

“If JobKeeper is gone at the end of March, the tourism industry will be a third of its pre-COVID size by September,” she said.

“We’ve already seen more than 100,000 jobs go. Without JobKeeper and without certainty, another 318,000 jobs will be lost. It will be just as well overseas visitors can’t come here because there won’t be much left to see or do.”

Within Australia, travel restrictions remained in some states, with WA requiring arrivals from NSW and Queensland to self-­isolate for 14 days, and Victoria banning people from Sydney’s Cumberland local government area.

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk will announce the outcome of a monthly review of the state’s ban on residents from Greater Sydney by the end of the week. She and Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young have previously said the city would need 28 days of no mystery COVID cases for the ban to be lifted.

On Monday, a NSW Health spokeswoman said seven locally acquired cases detected between December 30, 2020, and January 15, 2021, were under investigation.

Queensland Tourism Industry Council chief executive Daniel Gschwind said borders needed to be opened for confidence to return to the travel industry. “This last month of turmoil has left many consumers gun-shy about booking, particularly interstate travel,” he said. “We’ll have our work cut out to convince people they should plan for that longed-for visit to Queensland and elsewhere.”

Chamber of Commerce and Industry Queensland policy and advocacy manager Amanda Rohan said the summer of uncertainty had seen forward bookings collapse, with businesses desperate to see confidence restored before Easter.