Upon Arrival | Events & Incentives with Adelaine Ng
Upon Arrival is for people creating unforgettable travel and event experiences for corporate clients. This community thrives on inspiration, ideas and strategies which are needed now more than ever through challenging times. The drivers for incentive travel are still strong and it’s just a matter of finding where the success stories are. Upon Arrival aims to uncover these stories to see how the strategists amongst us are learning new ways of doing things and even discovering new destinations and experiences that might not otherwise have been considered. We talk about mindset, personal development, pivot ideas and of course, what's happening with the travel and events industry.
Upon Arrival | Events & Incentives with Adelaine Ng
Ep70 Why New Zealand considered staying closed for another year and how it could lose out to Australia, with Joanna Fountain
Two months ago, New Zealand's tourism minister, Stuart Nash, told the country's tourism industry players to prepare to have no international tourists for another year. Then, the government said it would start opening in stages. But the 7 day isolation requirement stays, meaning it's still not viable for most tourists to visit, which is devastating for the industry. So what's behind the reluctance to re-start the country's No.1 export earner?
Joanna Fountain is an Associate Professor and researcher in tourism at NZ's Lincoln University, Christchurch. She has published multiple research papers on tourism issues and has been a consultant on tourism-related projects in the country.
Quotes from this episode:
"New Zealand has done such a good job of keeping (Covid) out (that) there are a large proportion of the population who are just saying, 'Close the borders. Just let us live our lives here without any international visitors'."
"Some destinations are doing better... against all expectation. Businesses that have been usually reliant on international visitors have found that in domestic visitors, they have more loyal guests who are staying longer and actually spending more money."
"I'm kind of not sure what the difference is between now and another year. It's already had such a massive impact - two years without our number one export earner. I'm not sure what difference another year will make."
-Joanna Fountain
Connect with Joanna:
Email: Joanna.Fountain@lincoln.ac.nz
Connect with Adelaine:
Email: uponarrivalpodcast@gmail.com