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What is the cost of Pacific tourism reopening?

Posted on 21 March 2022

With New Zealand’s borders opening next month to vaccinated Australians, and to vaccinated visitors from visa waiver countries from May 1, international tourism is slowly but surely back on the menu.
 
This is fantastic for the tourism sector that has borne the brunt of restrictions and immobility over the last two years or so, particularly within the Pacific. But what is the cost of reopening tourism? Regina Scheyvens (Professor of Development Studies) and Jason Paul Mika (Associate Professor at the School of Management) at Massey have come up with some key lessons, including:

  • Tourism needs to be more sustainable than it was
  • Differentiated pricing systems can help
  • We need to find ways to further regenerate tourism