The Cook Islands has reopened its borders to fully vaccinated New Zealanders, but with less fanfare and more trepidation than last year’s kick-off.

The two-way quarantine-free travel bubble lasted just three months in 2021 before authorities pulled the pin due to Auckland’s delta outbreak of covid-19.

Since then, the island nation has vaccinated close to 100 percent of its eligible population, paving the way for today’s reconnection.

Resort operator Tata Crocombe told RNZ News today’s excitement was mixed with fear and apprehension given previous setbacks.

“We’ve been open and closed before. Omicron is running away in Australia. There’s so much uncertainty.”

Crocombe, owner of the Rarotongan Beach Resort, said initial demand had been modest, below what he had hoped and expected.

“There’s no stampede [of tourists] this time. This has been very muted, very measured, very slow.”

Summer months typically quiet
He said the summer months were typically quiet for the Cook Islands, but believed demand was also down due to traveller fatigue with tourists delaying plans due to the constant uncertainty.

“If you listen to our colleagues in Queenstown, they’re not even getting the Aucklanders to move to Queenstown in the numbers they would’ve expected, so the market is definitely spooked.”

Cook Islands Tourism Industry Council president Liana Scott said that concern was widespread in the industry.

“There’s a lot of nervousness … a little bit of fear,” Scott said. “There’s worry that we’re opening to very low occupancy.”

Scott, who manages the Muri Beach Club Hotel, said most properties were at 30-40 percent capacity over the next few months, but would pick up from April onwards.

“Maybe it’s a blessing in disguise,” she said.

“We haven’t had covid here … perhaps a slower start does allow us to adapt to some of the new procedures and practices that have come on board.”

Turn around for winter
Cook Islands Tourism Australasia general manager Graeme West said bookings were “reasonably quiet” for the next few months, but that would turn around as New Zealand moved into winter.

“Given we’re starting mid-January, the demand has been good, but not as crazy as last time. From April on, we’re seeing very good bookings.”

House of Travel chief operating officer Brent Thomas said it would take a long time for international travel to return to pre-covid-19 levels, but the Cook Islands was well placed to bounce back.

“The Cook Islands itself is actually a relatively small destination in terms of its capacity so it’s not some place that takes a lot to fill it up.”

Air New Zealand’s chief operational integrity and safety officer David Morgan said the airline had “strong demand” for bookings this month, with “some seat availability in late January and February”.

The airline was offering a daily service between Auckland and Rarotonga but would adjust the schedule “where possible” as it monitored demand.

Only double-vaccinated travellers, from the age of 12 up, will be allowed into the Pacific nation, with a negative covid-19 test required no more than 48 hours before departure.

Once in Rarotonga, passengers will need to take a rapid antigen test before travelling on to Aitutaki.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Cook Island businesses holding out for much needed tourists have now got a reprieve with a travel bubble with New Zealand less than two weeks away.

It will start on May 17, with Air New Zealand offering flights from May 18.

During yesterday’s announcement, Cook Islands Prime Minister Mark Brown said there had been enormous sacrifices made to keep covid-19 out and communities safe.

“Our economy has been devastated, today we start our journey of recovery. Today, we get back into business and today, we start to rebuild,” he said.

Cook Islands Tourism Industry Council president Liana Scott said the bubble announcement was a relief as the wait had been dire for many businesses and financial support from the government due to run out next month.

“Some of them have mentioned to me, if it takes longer than May, they don’t think they can hang in any longer,” she said.

“We have been lucky enough to have the government support through a wage subsidy and, without that, business would not have been able to continue.”

Businesses begin preparations
Scott said businesses had already begun to prepare for overseas guests.

“Some properties have been in hibernation, so they have been closed completely and I’ve already seen on Facebook they’ve been having staff doing some rotational shifts, getting into the rooms, servicing aircons and those sorts of things,” she said.

She said some hotels have even been making their own jam while they waited for shipments of individual breakfast spreads to come in for guests

But she said some business had lost workers to New Zealand as the wage subsidy was only enough to survive on let alone pay the mortgage and other bills.

When the one way bubble was announced in January, 304 Cook Island residents left either for a short term stay or permanently.

“A lot of that young working population has moved to New Zealand to do some seasonal and permanent roles and I think filling those roles will be quite difficult,” she said.

Three flights a week
Once the bubble is up and running Air New Zealand will fly to the Cook Islands two or three times a week.

The airline expects to step that up to daily from July in time for the school holidays.

However, National Party leader Judith Collins said the government had not been moving fast enough to reconnect with other Pacific countries.

“The fact is these countries have almost no other income other than remittances, it is simply deplorable that the government has not moved faster on this.

“It shouldn’t be hard when there’s no cases in these other countries,” she said.

In the past, Samoa’s Prime Minster has been reluctant to open up the borders following the measles outbreak and Tonga’s Prime Minister has said a vaccination programme needs to be done first.

Nuie’s Premier Dalton Tagelagi is waiting to see how successful the Cook Islands bubble is before lobbying for one of its own.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said it makes the most sense for realm countries to be the next countries in line for a bubble, but the decision is “in the hands of those countries.”

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

After months of discussions, the trans-Tasman bubble is officially open.

The prime ministers of New Zealand and Australia are describing it as a world-leading arrangement that promotes travel between the two countries, without letting covid-19 into the community.

Jacinda Ardern and Scott Morrison say the Pacific Islands are next on the list.

A May bubble is still intended with the Cook Islands but no firm date has been set as yet, Ardern said.

Opening up to the Pacific does not need to be done in lock-step with Australia, Ardern told RNZ Morning Report, because New Zealand has always aimed to have “a country-by-country framework”.

“It’s up to the discretion of each nation.”

Home quarantine?
Morrison has suggested home quarantine for vaccinated travellers could be possible by the end of the year.

The NZ government was sceptical about home quarantine, Ardern said.

Ardern said this country would want to look closely at the research and data around that and the risk of transmission to others.

“Our baseline is to get as many New Zealanders as we can vaccinated to a high degree before we look at opening up to countries that we consider to be higher risk than what we’re doing with Australia,” she said.

“Then there are a range of areas where we’re keeping an open mind but we really want the data to back up what we do.

“At the moment because those who are being vaccinated are not being regularly tested getting that research and data is a little difficult.”

While the chances of passing on Covid-19 were much lower for vaccinated people, more time was needed to establish solid data.

Border in stages
The border would open in stages, Ardern said, and there may be a scenario such as a variant responding less effectively to the vaccine being used here, so there may have to be “different protocols” for people from some parts of the world.

Ardern agreed it was a “very significant day” for New Zealanders.

She said the two countries would not be in this position if both countries had not adopted a strict covid-19 management regime with everyone playing their part.

There will be ups and downs but to have a quarantine-free arrangement with another country: “I don’t know anywhere else in the world that’s doing that so it is a very big day and exciting for family and friends,” Ardern said.

Asked if any decision had been made on allowing flights to resume from India, she said nothing had been decided yet.

The government was mindful of worsening numbers there but also had to be aware of New Zealanders’ rights to come home and not be left stateless.

The government was considering options for tightening up pre-departure testing in India such as reducing the time between the test and flight departure, plus accrediting some laboratories.

Removing inequity
Pre-departure quarantine within India would be very difficult to run, she said, in a country where covid-19 was so rampant.

The announcement by Immigration Minister Kris Faafoi later today was aimed at removing some inequity in the system relating to some migrants whose families had not been able to join them in New Zealand.

“This is us trying to work through an inequity in our system at the moment.”

She said there were spaces within managed isolation and quarantine at present.

While there are estimates that 5000 people are currently separated from their families, the numbers are imprecise in part because some have visas that are expiring, so they no longer qualify to have their families join them.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz