Tourism leader wants working holiday visa age lifted to 50

Monday, 18 August 2025

The Government wants to boost tourism, but international visitor numbers have stalled.

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An Auckland-based tourism entrepreneur is calling for the working holiday visa age to be lifted to 50 to boost stalling international visitor numbers.

“Offering that opportunity would give New Zealand a real point of difference and make us much more competitive,” says Tim Alpe, a co-founder of Jucy.

“We have lost our way in this area, and it’s a real challenge for many businesses.”

The visas had always been a popular way for people to see New Zealand, and also played a significant role in attracting people to work in industries such as tourism and hospitality, Alpe, now managing director at Lylo Hotel, said

Currently, citizens of countries with working holiday agreements with New Zealand who are aged 18 to 30, or 18 to 35 for a select few countries, can apply for a working holiday visa.

But Australia and Canada, which competed with New Zealand for tourists, have had huge increases in their working holiday visa applications since Covid, he said.

Tourism entrepreneur Tim Alpe is calling for the working holiday visa age to be lifted to 50.

“In contrast, we have gone backwards and are getting about 50% less applicants than we were pre-Covid, even though we offer working holiday visas to the same age range,” Alpe said.

Every person who got a working holiday visa for a year added about $60,000 to the economy, he said.

Tourism is the country’s second biggest export earner, even while the Government has repeatedly stated its goal to boost the industry further to help drive economic growth.

But Stats NZ’s latest overseas visitors data, released on Friday, revealed tourist numbers dropped in June for the second month in a row.

On a seasonally adjusted basis, tourism arrivals in June were down 2.5% from May, which was 0.5% down from April.

People on working holidays often do jobs on ski-fields, and in wineries, orchards, cafes and bars.

Infometrics economist Nick Brunsdon said although there was positive annual growth in tourists (up 5% in the year ending June), arrivals had been stuck at 87% of pre-pandemic levels for the past three months.

That was no better than the post-Covid level of activity first seen in February 2024, and it looked like New Zealand’s tourism recovery was stalling, he said.

People on working holidays travelled round the country and did jobs like fruitpicking or in ski-fields, wineries, and cafes, Alpe said.

“Countries like Australia and Canada have done a better job of marketing what they have on offer globally and we’re behind on that. We need to be really out there pushing our working visas.

“But our offering is very similar to Australia’s and Canada’s. To compete on the global stage, we need to differentiate ourselves and open up further to attract more visitors.”

Alpe said one way of doing that was to tap into the increased numbers of people outside that 18 to 35 bracket who were travelling post-Covid.

While some 35 plus aged travellers would make use of the digital nomad rules the Government announced earlier this year, increasing the working holiday visa age would attract others, he said.

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Tourism Minister Louise Upston want tourism to become the country’s number one export earner.

“We have to do something to get more visitors because we haven’t returned to pre-Covid tourism numbers yet while the rest of the world, including Australia has.”

The over-35s were a good market to open up more to because they had more disposable income, and tended to spend more and visit the regions more, and that was what the industry wanted, he said.

“New Zealand remains a popular bucket list destination, but we do need to stimulate things a bit more.”

Orbit World Travel director Niall White said Australia had eased some of its working holiday visa rules and was reporting record numbers of working travellers, especially from the UK.

That was helping its tourism recovery and giving its economy a welcome boost, he said.

“We should take a similar approach by updating the working holiday visa to better reflect how people live and work today. Digital nomads, remote teams and flexible careers don’t stop at 30.

“For tourism prosperity, we want to appeal to working holiday travellers because they have plenty of other countries to choose from.

Immigration New Zealand does not promote specific visa categories, MBIE says.

“Their tourism dollars are important, helping fuel our economy because they rent houses, eat out and spend in our towns and cities, plus they also help fill seasonal skill gaps.”

The Government’s Tourism Growth Roadmap, unveiled earlier this year, was focused on attracting more international visitors and strengthening the country’s economic recovery, he pointed out.

MBIE manager immigration policy Sam Foley said all working holiday scheme agreements were negotiated bilaterally with each country and there were no current plans to unilaterally increase age limits.

“In the year to 30 July 2025, around 46,500 working holiday visas were issued; slightly fewer than the previous year (48,000 in 2023/24) and still below pre-Covid levels.”

Immigration New Zealand did not promote specific visa categories, he said.

“We run an ongoing skills attraction programme that promotes New Zealand as a destination for highly skilled migrants in occupations experiencing persistent shortages and high demand.

“To support this, we provide content about living, working, and relocating to New Zealand on our website, share regular updates via social media, and use paid digital advertising across search and social platforms.”

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