Tasman passport needs ‘will hurt ski tourism’

Press, 27 May 1981, Page 10

Tasman passport needs ‘will hurt ski tourism’

PA Wellington New Zealand’s ski slopes could be stripped of 15,000 Australian skiers when Tasman passports are introduced from July 1, according to the New Zealand Travel, Association. This was one reason why executive members of the association were strongly opposed to the Australian Government’s decision to introduce passports. An executive member and former president of the Pacific Area Travel Association, Mr Duncan Hamilton, said that 15,000 Australians took advantage of New Zealand’s ski fields and easy access across the Tasman each year. He said that the ski trade could be threatened if skiers had to obtain a passport to come to New Zealand. “Ski-ing tends to be an impulse thing. If Australians can ring up a friend in Christchurch and ask what the snow is like, they can hop

on a plane tomorrow,” said Mr Hamilton. “If, as it is reported in Melbourne, it takes two months v to get a passport, then the'snow will have been and gone before they can get there.” Mr Hamilton estimated that only half of the Australians travelling across the Tasman have passports. “Just under 50 per cent of our inbound tourists come from Australia. We estimate ! that 50 per cent of these people haven’t got passports. That’s 125,000 people who will have to get passports to travel to New Zealand,” he said. A similar number of New Zealanders travelling to Australia would require passports. Mr Hamilton said that it was “absolute rubbish” to say that passports would make movement through customs and immigration controls at airports easier. “The physical time of having to open a passport and stamp it on the right-hand

side — what would that do to a fully-loaded 747?”

Other members speaking at the executive meeting of the N.T.A. yesterday showed unanimous opposition to the introduction of passports. Mr Jim Thompson said that the Australian measure was a “draconian decision” made by a Government out of touch with the “real situation.” He said that the decision was taken out of step with a global movement towards facilitating travel movement.

Mr Matt Ramsden said that the New Zealand travel industry’s response to competition between states within Australia was to emphasise the freedom of movement across the Tasman.

He said that the whole of that effort had been blunted by the introduction of this “relatively complex travel documentation.”

Mr Ramsden said he supported any executive movement to have the Australian decision reversed.