Major casino and hotel operator, SkyCity has praised the country’s shift to the orange traffic light level, stating that this is a welcome development for the tourism and hospitality industry.
The status comes with a relaxed set of rules, including an end to gathering limits and the removal of the requirement for restaurant patrons to be always seated and separated.
The country’s Covid-19 Minister, Chris Hipkins, recently announced the transition to a less stringent pandemic response strategy, citing falling case numbers and saying,
“We are over the peak, we are coming down the other side; in some places we’re coming well down”
Callum Mallett, SkyCity’s CEO expressed the company’s excitement at the news but added that, even with increased capacity, it would still take a few days for the company to return to normal operations.
“The ability for customers to find those bookings in the time that we have could be challenging but most operators will move pretty quickly to ensure they can welcome as many guests as possible,” Mallett said.
Normalcy Returns
Australians are now permitted to enter New Zealand without the requirement of isolating, provided that they are vaccinated and test negative for Covid-19. As a result, booking figures for flights between the two countries have increased slightly, but the casino operator has remained realistic, predicting that an immediate huge influx of visitors is unlikely.
Mallet advised that while the current numbers are minimal low, this is a positive development, nonetheless.
“The Australian market being open is a significant step because now even if they don’t rush to book, the opportunity exists for them to book and as airlines increase frequency of flights we’re really confident that the Australian market over time will return to like it was pre-Covid,” he said.
The CEO concluded by stating that the Asian market still has a long road to recovery, with low expectations of the overall numbers returning to anything resembling pre-Covid levels in the coming summer.
