Some Wānaka accommodation providers say they are still waiting for the reopening of the border with Australia to make a significant difference to their booking numbers.

In mid-March PM Jacinda Ardern announced that New Zealand would reopen to vaccinated visitors from Australia from April 12, just ahead of the Easter break and the Australian school holidays; and vaccinated travellers from 65+ other countries would be able to arrive from May.

Lake Wānaka Managed Accommodation office manager Liz Webster told the Wānaka App that since the announcement, bookings have been “slowly filling up”.

“It’s not the big surge we were hoping for: It’s not like the Aussies are pouring into Wānaka,” she said.

The company manages a range of holiday homes, apartments and other accommodation in and around Wānaka.

Another accommodation provider, Mandy Enoka, says there’s “certainly not a flood of bookings coming in and much excitement.”

Mandy is the director of Wanaka Selections Holiday Homes and Te Wanaka Lodge, which combined can sleep 300 people per night. 

“From what we understand and what we’ve been told by our Australian guests enquiring they are having trouble securing insurance,” Mandy said.

“There’s a lot of reluctance to commit; a lot of distrust in whether alert levels will change.”

Trans-Tasman travellers have historically made up 40 percent of New Zealand’s international arrivals, around 1.5M Australians per year.

Liz said she believes one of the reasons Australian visitors aren’t making bookings is because they are choosing to stay with family after long periods being separated.

However, both operators said booking numbers are looking more promising further into the year, particularly for the winter holidays. 

Accommodation providers say they have stronger bookings for winter, which is when tourism minister Stuart Nash said he expects visitor numbers to start to increase. PHOTO: Charlotte Kiri Photography

The slow-ish start to new bookings following the border reopening announcement was signalled by minister of tourism Stuart Nash.

He said initial bookings to New Zealand from international tourists would be “measured”, before travel started to pick up for winter holidays and ski tourism, before the peak summer season.

Lake Wānaka Tourism (LWT) general manager Tim Barke said many local businesses were “cautiously very excited” about the arrival of international visitors, even if the impact wouldn’t be substantial right away.

“This is the certainty they have needed to start planning and getting their businesses back up and ready to welcome our manuhiri (guests) from overseas.”

Australian visitors will arrive in New Zealand from next Tuesday (April 12).