Thousands allowed in without new travel authorities to avoid passenger chaos

Tuesday, 15 October 2019

The introduction of a New Zealand electronic travel authority experienced a few hiccups.

Thousands of passengers have been allowed to enter New Zealand without getting a new electronic travel authority or paying a new visitor levy.

Electronic travel authorities (ETAs) became compulsory two weeks ago for visitors from about 60 countries, despite tourism industry warnings the introduction was too rushed and should be delayed until next year.

The day before the ETA was officially introduced on October 1, Immigration Minister Iain Lees-Galloway issued a special direction to allow a 'phasing in' of the new system, because parts of it were not working properly.

The direction effectively means hundreds of passengers a day have been able to enter the country without ETAs and therefore avoid paying the $35 a head tourism and conservation levy it also collects.

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However, Immigration NZ (INZ) policy director Nick Aldous stressed that passengers turning up at overseas check ins without ETAs were being screened on the spot by INZ staff and there was no threat to border security.

He said the phased implementation allowed for testing to ensure the ETA system aligned with the advance passenger processing (APP) system which tells airlines whether passengers have an ETA, and to avoid disruption to carriers and to passengers unaware of the change.

Aldous said he expected the system to be fully operational in the next couple of weeks and from early November passengers without ETAs would not be able to board a flight or cruise ship.

The major change to border screening means up to 1.8 million visitors a year will now have to declare any criminal convictions in advance of travel here, and about 98,000 visitors requiring an ETA were expected during October.

Aldous said the special ministerial direction was published in the government Gazette but INZ did not further publicise it to ensure maximum compliance, which was running at about 85 per cent, and 'to avoid confusing travellers from visa waiver countries about their obligation to have an ETA.'

Tourism Industry Aotearoa chief executive Chris Roberts said that given the circumstances, the decision to delay enforcement was the right one because it avoided upsetting visitors' travel plans, but it was wrong to keep it secret.

'No one other than government officials, the Minister and the airlines seemed to be aware that this was the situation.

'We need to be open and transparent and the law is effectively suspended for now, so you don't require an ETA enter New Zealand, but we are telling travellers you do.'

Roberts said it appeared the level of compliance was highly variable. 'Some flights may be close to fully compliant whereas on others more than half the plane may not have an ETA.'

When the Government consulted on the ETA last year the tourism industry suggested delaying its introduction until 2020 because of the tight time frame for implementation and the potential for travel chaos.

It is the second hiccup for the ETA with INZ denouncing the growth of unofficial third party websites offering processing at grossly inflated prices, another risk it was warned about during public consultation.

Roberts said there was pressure on INZ to get the ETA up and running so it could begin collecting the international visitor levy.

Aldous said the $15m collected to date was ahead of forecasts and of the more than 280,000 ETAs processed so far, only 106 requests have been refused.

A $5m global publicity campaign targeted airlines and international travel agents, and INZ also stationed more than 30 staff at key overseas travel hubs to assist passengers needing on the spot ETAs.

The Board of Airline Representatives has 29 airline members and it said INZ's phased approach allowed for systems to be bedded in.

Executive director Justin Tighe-Umbers said they had called for flexibility when passengers were 'caught short' and unable to buy an ETA on time.

'We don't want travellers to be needlessly left behind.'