OPINION: In early February, as a precaution against importing a novel coronavirus, New Zealand closed its borders to any foreigners arriving from China. READ MORE:* Coronavirus: What telco data tells us about the economic impact of lockdown* Coronavirus: Sky-Garden could tower as international tourism beacon post Covid-19* Coronavirus: Government pulls telco location data for Covid-19 pandemic planning* Coronavirus: 'Immediate' tourism drop expected after tighter border restrictionsOf course then came the lock down. From a tourism perspective if we could open borders with China and Australia alone it would reestablish half of our international tourism market. As such, opening these borders alone might take us back to pre-Covid levels of international tourism activity. Without a re-ignition of international tourism there will huge societal costs.

Source: Stuff April 16, 2020 01:07 UTC