New Zealand – आवारा मुसाफिर

IVL increase to hurt New Zealand Travel & Tourism, says IATA

September 3, 2024171 Views

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) expressed disappointment with the New Zealand Government's decision to increase the International Visitor Conservation and Tourism Levy (IVL). “It has been a double whammy for the New Zealand travel and tourism sector, starting with New Zealand Immigration announcing steep increases in visa fees, and now the increase in the IVL. These changes make travel to New Zealand more expensive and less attractive and could further delay the recovery in visitor numbers to beyond 2026,” said Dr. Xie Xingquan, IATA’s Regional Vice President for North Asia and Asia-Pacific (ad interim). The recovery of the New Zealand aviation market currently lags behind major markets such as Australia, Canada, France, Spain, the UK, and the US. These market...

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World’s rarest whale may have washed up on New Zealand beach

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July 16, 2024272 Views

If confirmed, will shed clues on spade-toothed whales Spade-toothed whales are the world’s rarest, with no live sightings ever recorded. No one knows how many there are, what they eat, or even where they live in the vast expanse of the southern Pacific Ocean. However, scientists in New Zealand may have finally caught a break. The country’s conservation agency said Monday a creature that washed up on a South Island beach this month is believed to be a spade-toothed whale. The five-meter-long creature, a type of beaked whale, was identified after it washed ashore on an Otago beach from its color patterns and the shape of its skull, beak and teeth. “We know very little, practically nothing” about the creatures, Hannah Hendriks, marine technical adviser for the Department of Cons...

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New Zealand imposes lifetime ban on youth buying cigarettes

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December 13, 20221242 Views

New Zealand on Tuesday passed into law a unique plan to phase out tobacco smoking by imposing a lifetime ban on young people buying cigarettes. The law states that tobacco can’t ever be sold to anybody born on or after Jan. 1, 2009, it would be punishable by fines up to NZ$150,000 ($95,910). The ban will remain in place for a person's whole life. It means the minimum age for buying cigarettes will keep going up and up. In theory, somebody trying to buy a pack of cigarettes 50 years from now would need ID to show they were at least 63 years old. But health authorities hope smoking will fade away well before then. FILE PHOTO: Vaping by a man in a street in Auckland, New Zealand, Thursday, Dec. 9, 2021. (AP Photo/David Rowland) Already boasting one of the lowest adult smoking ...

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New Zealand removes most remaining COVID restrictions

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September 12, 20221305 Views

Tourists will no longer need to be vaccinated to visit New Zealand removed most of its remaining COVID-19 restrictions Monday as the government signaled a return to normalcy for the first time since the pandemic began. People will no longer be required to wear masks in supermarkets, stores, busses or planes. The last remaining vaccine mandates — on health care workers — will end. And tourists will no longer need to be vaccinated in order to visit the country. The government announced it was ditching its so-called COVID traffic light framework altogether and leaving in place just two main restrictions — that those who test positive for the virus isolate for seven days, and that people wear masks when visiting health care facilities like hospitals and aged-care homes. FILE PHOTO...

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New Zealand welcomes back first cruise ship since COVID hit

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August 14, 20221065 Views

New Zealand on Friday welcomed the first cruise ship to return since the coronavirus pandemic began, signaling a long-sought return to normalcy for the nation’s tourism industry. New Zealand closed its borders in early 2020 as it sought at first to eliminate COVID-19 entirely and then later to control its spread. Although the country reopened its borders to most tourists arriving by plane in May, it wasn’t until two weeks ago that it lifted all remaining restrictions, including those on maritime arrivals. Many in the cruise industry question why it took so long. The Pacific Explorer sails into the Waitemata Harbour, in Auckland, New Zealand, Friday, Aug. 12, 2022. (Brett Phibbs/New Zealand Herald) The end of restrictions allowed Carnival Australia’s Pacific Explorer cruise shi...

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New Zealand to fully open international borders from end-July

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May 11, 20221063 Views

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said on Wednesday the country will fully reopen its international borders from 11:59 p.m. on July 31, with cruise ships also welcome back to local ports on the same day. The end-July opening of the border is two months earlier than the government's previous time frame and will mean visitors who need visas will now be able to come to New Zealand. Ardern said in a speech to a Business NZ lunch in Auckland that opening the borders would help to relieve urgent skills shortages, open up tourism and put immigration settings on a more secure footing. "We are building on our proven plan to secure New Zealand's economic future," Ardern said. (Reuters) ...

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New Zealand opens its borders to 60 more countries

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May 2, 20221253 Views

But Indian tourists will still have to wait till October to get in New Zealand welcomed thousands of travellers from around the globe on Monday as the country opened its borders to visitors from around 60 nations including the United States, Britain and Singapore for the first time since COVID-19 hit in early 2020. Maori cultural performers sang songs at the arrivals gate in Auckland and travellers were handed popular locally made chocolate bars as the first flights came in from Los Angeles and San Francisco. Friends and family hugged and cried as people were reunited for what was for some the first time in more than two years. Garth Halliday, who was waiting at the airport for his son, daughter-in-law and grandson to land from London, told local media it made him happy an...

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New Zealand to reopen borders for travellers sooner than planned

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March 16, 20221119 Views

New Zealand is bringing forward the opening of its international borders to some travellers after more than two years of COVID-19 isolation, with Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern saying an influx of tourists will boost the nation's economy. The change means the end of some of the toughest border controls in the world during the COVID pandemic, imposed as the government tried to keep the coronavirus out, comes months ahead of the previous schedule. New Zealand's policies helped keep infections and deaths low. But with the Omicron variant now rampant, criticism has grown as business, particularly tourism, and agricultural sectors see little value in staying shut off from the world. Ardern told reporters on Wednesday that vaccinated travellers from Australia, New Zealand's biggest sour...

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Middle-earth came to life again

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December 10, 2021364 Views

Hobbit, Sauron and Gollum makeovers in New Zealand as Lord of the Rings turns 20 Middle-earth came to life again this week as New Zealand celebrated 20 years since the premiere of the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy with special screenings, costume exhibition and art displays. Friday marked the 20th anniversary of when the first feature film of the J.R.R Tolkien's "The Lord of the Rings" and "Hobbit" trilogies premiered at Odeon Leicester Square in London on Dec. 10, 2001, bringing instant fame to New Zealand's rolling hills, meadows and forests, which were the backdrop for the mythical Middle-Earth. Screenings were planned in cinemas in Auckland and Wellington, including an outdoor screening on Friday in Hobbiton, a sheep and beef farm about 160 kilometers from Auckland, famous ...

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New Zealand will keep borders closed for five more months

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November 24, 2021615 Views

Fully vaccinated international travellers will be allowed to enter the country from April 30 New Zealand will keep its borders closed to most international travellers for a further five months, the government said on Wednesday, outlining a cautious easing of coronavirus border curbs that have been in place for nearly two years. Along with its geographic isolation, the South Pacific country enforced some of the tightest pandemic restrictions among OECD nations, limiting the spread of COVID-19 and helping its economy bounce back faster than many of its peers. FILE PHOTO: A pedestrian weariing a face mask walks past a storefront reading "Welcome Back!" as shoppers return to the Newmarket retail district in the wake of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) lockdown restrictions being eased ...