Tourism leaders pushing for permanent joint Australia-NZ tourist visa
The joint visa allowing travel between Australia and New Zealand is proving a big hit with cricket fans during the ICC World Cup Down Under.
Now tourism officials want to see the scheme become permanent to boost inbound tourism and trans-Tasman travel.
"Having a common visa between Australia and New Zealand for the period of the cricket is a great start but that’s as far as we’ve got really in the period since 2008," said Australian Tourism and Transport Forum CEO Margy Osmand.
"What the common visa would also mean is the capacity to attract another 120,000 Asians into our region and that’s more than the German, Japan and South Korean markets put together," Ms Osmand added.
A flight from Sydney to New Zealand takes less than three hours but that can typically double to almost six hours when factoring customs and immigration checks.
The aim is to reduce it by at least one hour with the implementation of a common visa which would effectively treat trans-Tasman travel as a domestic journey.
"From a New Zealand perspective, 400,000 of the best paid Australians with a propensity to travel is a win for them too," said Australian Capital Territory chief minister Andrew Barr.
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Editor for TravelMole North America and Asia pacific regions. Ray is a highly experienced (15+ years) skilled journalist and editor predominantly in travel, hospitality and lifestyle working with a huge number of major market-leading brands. He has also cover in-depth news, interviews and features in general business, finance, tech and geopolitical issues for a select few major news outlets and publishers.
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