Tourism minister Stuart Nash has dashed hopes of a targeted wage subsidy for Queenstown Lakes District businesses and said they need to face the "cold, hard reality" of 2021. 

The minister, speaking to Newshub’s The AM Show this week, said there are tourism businesses "bleeding all over the country".

But, there are unlikely to be any international tourists in New Zealand until next year at the earliest. 

The question for government then, Stuart said, is how much taxpayers' money they should use to "subsidise or prop up businesses that are probably not going to be viable for at least another 11 months".

Stuart told show host Duncan Garner: "If you've got a business that is solely or predominantly reliant on overseas tourists and you haven't been able to pivot from an international base to a domestic base, then I'm afraid you're probably going to have to have some very hard conversations with your bank, your creditors, your directors and your employees.

"The cold, hard reality is that we're probably not going to see overseas tourists in this country until next year." 

He said the government is "working very hard" on an Australian bubble.  

"That will alleviate it if we can get that across the line, but I see there’s another outbreak in Victoria today..."

Queenstown Lakes District mayor Jim Boult and business leaders have been lobbying the Labour government in recent weeks for a return to the wage subsidy for tourism businesses. 

But Stuart said finance minister Grant Robertson "has been very clear on the wage subsidy". 

"That will kick in again if we have a change in alert level but at this point in time, everything being equal, i.e. we stay at alert level one, then we are not talking about a wage subsidy at all," he told The AM Show. 

Duncan Garner questioned how much of the $14B wage subsidy was left over and whether that could be used to create a package for Queenstown Lakes businesses. 

But Stuart said it is in a contingency fund, should there be another lockdown. 

"We're not out of the woods yet, this is what we keep saying to Kiwis." 

Queenstown tourism firm Canyon Explorers became the latest business to mothball operations, from Monday, although it will honour existing bookings and groups through to Easter. 

Managing director Stefan Crawford said it had been "a tough but necessary call" given the ongoing decline in visitors to Queenstown over the coming months and the uncertainty around a trans-Tasman bubble.

He said Canyon Explorers had been doing its best to navigate through its first domestic-only season, adjusting offers to encourage kiwis to 'Do Something New'.

Historically, 95 per cent of the company's clients come from outside New Zealand, so he was aware this season was always going to be a challenge.

"Through the generosity of local businesses, we are pleased to have found work opportunities for our guiding team over the medium term," he said.

Last week, Queenstown giant Skyline announced it was returning to a skeleton staff, as those on fixed term contracts finished their terms. 

Skyline Enterprises boss Geoff McDonald said the company didn't have any plans to close its Queenstown operations, but it is monitoring the situation. 

Skyline Queenstown was one of 130 tourism businesses to receive funding through the Strategic Tourism Assets Protection Programme. It received $500k and access to a $500k grant. 

The allocation of STAPP funding, particularly some of the early allocations such as $5.1M (+ $5.1M grant) to Queenstown's AJ Hackett Bungy is the subject of an inquiry by the auditor general, announced last week. 

Stuart Nash, on The AM Show, pointed to the $400M the government has made available to tourism businesses, plus the $1.8B of the wage subsidy that went towards them. 

He urged businesses in trouble to take advantage of the $5000 of free advice on offer, through chambers of commerce and the Regional Business Partner Network. 

And he said he is still in talks with the finance minister. 

"... nothing is certain, we haven't got a bottomless pit of money as you can appreciate ... but the cold hard reality is you're just not going to see bus loads of Germans, Japanese or Americans or English travelling up and down our highways in 2021."