Choice! Coolangatta welcomes back NZ flights
Destination Gold Coast urges Kiwis ‘to come and play’
Links between the Gold Coast and New Zealand are back on track following the resumption of Air New Zealand flights into Coolangatta.
It’s a welcome relief for the Gold Coast’s accommodation industry which pre-pandemic saw close on 210,000 Kiwis visit annually in the process generating some $28 million, the region’s second biggest source of international visitation and foreign exchange after China.
The return of direct links to the Gold Coast coincided with the easing of border restrictions for returning Kiwis and the removal of self-isolation requirements which the local tourism industry hopes will send a strong message to New Zealand’s leisure travel market.
Destination Gold Coast’s CEO Patricia O’Callaghan said are a slew of new experiences have opened up in the Gold Coast during the travel suspension which qwould be on visiting Kiwis’ must do list.
“Our message to everyone in New Zealand is to come and play on the Gold Coast!” she said.
Pre-pandemic, the Gold Coast saw more than 550,000 people travel between New Zealand and Queensland annually, this figure dropping to just 20,000 quarantine free journeys during the brief trans-Tasman bubble last year.