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Speaker 1: Changes to the tourism visa process could be on the way.

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Speaker 1: Nikola Willis she's got that new remit as the Economic

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Speaker 1: Growth Minister, and she wants to make it easier for visits,

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Speaker 1: particularly Chinese visitors to come here. Here are the numbers

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Speaker 1: for you. Chinese visitor numbers still at around sixty percent

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Speaker 1: of pre COVID, which is pretty bad. That's the year

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Speaker 1: to October overall around eighty seven percent. Simon Bridges allcland

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Speaker 1: Business Chamber of CEO Simon, good morning, Hey morning, Ryan,

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Speaker 1: good to have you on. How hard is it for

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Speaker 1: a Chinese tourist to come here?

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Speaker 2: Look, it's hard, and I mean I'll just go to

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Speaker 2: the wider issue, which is it's good we've got any

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Speaker 2: new Minister of Economic Growth who's listening, looking for ideas

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Speaker 2: to usually grow the economy economy, but look, actually she

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Speaker 2: needs to. We're in recession. It's really tough out there.

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Speaker 2: And you know I'm talking and I've been talking a

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Speaker 2: while about tourism. But it could be international education, it

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Speaker 2: could be a bunch of issues. It's just that tourism

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Speaker 2: is one of them that's low hanging fruit. It's really hard.

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Speaker 2: We've made it really hard. It's more costly since last

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Speaker 2: year from government is more complicated, it takes longer to

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Speaker 2: get a visa and these are you know, oftentimes last

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Speaker 2: minute travelers. Right, So we've definitely made it harder. And

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Speaker 2: contrast it with Singapore, right, you talk about Singapore there

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Speaker 2: they have gone visa free for thirty days for Chinese travelers,

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Speaker 2: as opposed to what we've done, where you know, it's

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Speaker 2: absolutely not that you need that costly complicated visa and surprise, surprise,

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Speaker 2: whereas we're you know, eighty percent and tourism back to

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Speaker 2: pre COVID levels, they're one hundred percent back when it

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Speaker 2: comes to Chinese tourists. And by the way you and

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Speaker 2: you have said it yourself, actually our issue is Chinese

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Speaker 2: were there are only whatever it is, were.

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Speaker 1: We stupid then our government to put the visa fees

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Speaker 1: up on the visitor levy up.

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Speaker 2: You know, I think I think what government kind of

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Speaker 2: needs to do for business for New Zealand as ultimates,

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Speaker 2: every decision they make have a pro growth lens. Right,

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Speaker 2: you know, does this help grow or does it does

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Speaker 2: it hurt it? And bear in mind with right, I

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Speaker 2: mean we're talking about a country that is rich They

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Speaker 2: have nearly double the gdpople capital than us, but they're

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Speaker 2: not too good for what some people here called sometimes

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Speaker 2: low value tourism. Right, they take it where they can

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Speaker 2: get it.

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Speaker 1: Will we, I mean, was what we did last year

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Speaker 1: progress or anti growth?

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Speaker 2: Well? Look, you know the answer for that. I mean,

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Speaker 2: I'm not suggesting that they don't have I'm not criticizing that.

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Speaker 1: It's hard to criticize their old colleagues, I understand, but

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Speaker 1: I mean it's look.

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Speaker 2: Look anyone, and in the end, they've got very real issues.

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Speaker 2: You know, they do have cost pressures. You know there

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Speaker 2: are valid reasons. But in the end, you know, if

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Speaker 2: you're looking to get the economy, as they would say,

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Speaker 2: back on track, and we urgently need to to keep

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Speaker 2: Kiwi's here tourisms low hanging fruit. There's visa issue is one,

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Speaker 2: but actually, don't just think about China, think about India.

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Speaker 2: Their tourism market's been growing massively. Are they're fundamentally not

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Speaker 2: coming here as tourists? What about for them any business

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Speaker 2: class traveler visa? Again, I cannot see any good reason

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Speaker 2: why you wouldn't sort of start doing some of these

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Speaker 2: moves that other countries do.

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Speaker 1: We is air capacity of problem here because we're not

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Speaker 1: back to pre pandemic levels. Do we need to incentivize

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Speaker 1: airlines or get them back on board?

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Speaker 2: Yes we do. I mean it's good news to see

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Speaker 2: you know, some hints about Turkey to Turkish airlines. I

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Speaker 2: think coming that though my sensus is not an issue

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Speaker 2: around China. Right we have, I mean we have nearly

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Speaker 2: It's remarkable when you look at the numbers, and obviously

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Speaker 2: geopolitics plays a role in this. We have nearly as

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Speaker 2: many flights coming into a New Zealand from China as

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Speaker 2: America does. Right, So in my sense of it is

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Speaker 2: is they will not be at full capacity, so fill

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Speaker 2: them up. We're not too good for tourism and get

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Speaker 2: your restaurants, your retail, your hotels back to that kind

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Speaker 2: of one hundred percent as opposed to probably the seventy

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Speaker 2: five eighty percent there at the moment, which is the

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Speaker 2: difference between profit and loss.

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Speaker 1: Simon, thank you. Good to hear from your Simon Bridges

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Speaker 1: the Aukland Business Chamber of CEO. It is eighteen minutes

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Speaker 1: away from even five hundred and ninety dollars on fees

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Speaker 1: and English language translations. So any Chinese tourists who wants

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Speaker 1: to come here, they have to get all of their

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Speaker 1: documents translated into English first, and, as Simon said, their

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Speaker 1: last minute, Travis, who wants to do that?

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