New Zealand Reopen Plans Moved Forward

New Zealand’s Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern, announced on Tuesday the 15th of March the New Zealand reopen plans initially set to allow travellers in July, will now be moved forward in an exciting turn of events for travellers.  

After nearly two years with no travellers to New Zealand, the government initially announced a long-haul plan to take place over the course of 2022. This plan detailed Australian and visa-waiver country travellers being allowed quarantine-free entry to the country in July.  

However, in a recent bid to boost the economy of the New Zealand tourism sector, discussion led to some of these plans being pushed forwards, allowing travellers in quarantine-free earlier than expected. This is fantastic news for the summer holidays.  

This means that fully vaccinated travellers from Australia will be able to enter quarantine-free when New Zealand reopen to them on the 12th of April.  

Fully vaccinated travellers from visa-waiver countries including the UK, US, and Singapore, will be allowed quarantine-free entry when New Zealand reopen to them from the 2nd of May.  

To find out more about what qualifies as a visa-waiver country, or the rules for current visa holders, don’t forget to check the Foreign Travel Advice page and keep up to date on further details to come. 

From the 2nd of May the restrictions for fully vaccinated travellers from the UK to New Zealand will be as follows: 

• All travellers must provide proof of a full course of an approved vaccination program. 
• All travellers must give proof of a negative pre-departure test.  
• All travellers must take a rapid antigen test on day 5 OR 6 of their stay in New Zealand. 

As originally planned, the New Zealand reopen plans for unvaccinated visitors and visitors from non-visa-waiver countries will resume in October of this year.  

The New Zealand government statement said, “Closing our border was one of the first actions we took to stop Covid-19 two years ago. It did the job we needed. But now that we are highly vaccinated and predicted to be off our Omicron peak, it is now safe to open up. 

“Reopening in time for the upcoming Australian school holidays will help spur our economic recovery in the short term and is good news for the winter ski season. 

“Trans-Tasman travellers have historically made up 40% of our international arrivals, with around 1.5 million Australians visiting each year. 

“While we know it will take some time to see tourism scale up again, today’s announcement will be a welcome boost for our tourism operators who have done it harder than many over the last two years. 

“New Zealand is a country which is able to provide a safe place for tourists to return to due to our strong health response to Covid-19. 

“An earlier reopening for tourism, and the air travel that brings, also increases capacity for our exports, helping to lower freight rates and the flow-on costs of goods that stems from that. 

“We know that traveller numbers will be below pre-Covid levels for awhile and tourism globally will take time to rebound, but today’s announcement means we are ready to go, so welcome back.” 

So, if you’re looking forward to your next great holiday, don’t wait, book now with a travel business registered with PTS for 100% financial protection through trust. Or, if you’d like assistance choosing one of the lovely PTS members to book with, you can contact PTS directly at 0207 190 9988.      

And if you’d like to learn more about your financial protection with PTS or how the Package Travel Regulations protect your holiday booking, check out our pages and Travel Advice.