Visa delays blamed for a slow down in Indian visitors

Tuesday, 2 July 2019

Indian visitors tendency to spend on activities like jet boating and travel off season makes them popular with tourism operators. But long waits for holiday visas are being blamed for a drop in Indian tourists.

Delays in processing holiday visas for Indian visitors are blighting an otherwise promising tourist market.

Tourism New Zealand (TNZ) chief executive Stephen England-Hall estimated our international visitor market lost $30m to $50m in revenue over the nine months to April as a result of an unexpected decline following strong growth from India.

He said visas were part of the problem and they were working with Immigration New Zealand (INZ) to find a resolution.

'We're unsure how much the delay in visa processing is contributing to the slow down, however in the absence of other material changes, and continue strong growth in arrivals from India to comparable markets, it's clear visa processing is having an impact.'

Tourism Industry Aotearoa chief executive Chris Roberts said visa processing delays were 'extremely concerning' as visitors unable to get visas in time were choosing other destinations, and the industry had repeatedly raised the issue with immigration officials and Immigration Minister Iain Lees-Galloway.

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'May is usually a key month for us for visitors from India, but provisional figures suggest numbers were down by almost 20 per cent in May [compared with 2018] following a 14 per cent fall in April.'

Last year there were 67,517 arrivals from India and just under half of them were holidaymakers.

According to TNZ Indian holiday arrivals had doubled in the previous five years, and their preference for travelling in the New Zealand spring and autumn, along with their tendency to spend a lot on activities, made their very welcome visitors.

The Immigration NZ website said 90 per cent of visitor visas were issued within 28 days.

It was recruiting an extra 20 staff for its Mumbai office where visitor visa applications from India were processed, and productivity would increase as staff became more experienced.

Tourism Export Council chair Anna Black said her company General Travel did a lot of work in the Indian market and the growth in visa processing times was shocking.

Three years ago Indian visas applications took 17 days, and that was really only 'just acceptable' because many Indians tended to book at the last minute.

'A lot of it is that middle and senior management cannot get their leave approved so early. We all book six to eight months in advance, but sometimes their management cannot approve leave until a couple of weeks out,' said Black.

'The Tourism Export Council fully supports security and protecting NEw Zealand, but it just seems (INZ) needs more staff and resources thrown at it.

'If markets start thinking New Zealand is too difficult to get to, they won't choose us and they will choose another destination. Indications are that is already happening.'

Naturally New Zealand specialises in the Indian market and business development manager Saurav Joshi said that last year they had 1000 Indian bookings over May, June and July, but this year they were down by between 300 and 400.

If customers decided to postpone their travel until their visas arrived, there was risk was that price increases could see them opting to go somewhere cheaper.