Lift Of Travel Ban Boost Casino Market In New Zealand

On Wednesday, Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern, announced that New Zealand will be opening up their borders once more for international tourism. This news came as a relief for many sectors of the NZ economy, but heavily so on the entertainment and hospitality industries. While real money online casinos have thrived throughout the pandemic, the same cannot be said for landbased casinos. Just take a look at what happened to a local Hamilton casino in October last year.

The past two years have wreaked havoc on certain businesses within New Zealand, but few more so than the land-based casinos. As one can imagine, the SkyCity group are thrilled at this announcement!

What The Travel Restriction Lift Entails

According to Arden, the travel restriction lift includes the following:

1. Tourists from Australia will be allowed to enter New Zealand as of mid-April
2. Tourists from visa-waiver countries (±60 countries) will be allowed entry from the beginning of May
3. Tourists will need to be fully vaccinated
4. No two week quarantine will be needed upon arrival to New Zealand
5. Travellers will need to provide a test completed before departure
6. Travellers will need to perform rapid test upon arrival at New Zealand
7. Travellers will then again need to take a second rapid antigen test five days after arrival
8. Travellers from the rest of the world are estimated to be granted entry come October 2022

As you can see, this will really help boost the entertainment sector of New Zealand. And one man in particular is thrilled about this development.

SkyCity COO Weighs In On The Travel Ban Lift

Callum Mallett recently commented on the travel lift. Although excited about it, he did mention that the group were anticipating a slower tourist reintroduction as opposed to the mass influx which will now occur. In an interview with RNZ, he stated,

This means growth for the economy s job creation as well, which is a welcome turn around after the previous two years.

During Covid-19’s peak period, the SkyCity Entertainment group had to retrench hundreds of employees. As such, this can be taken as a major win for the group.

According to Mallett,