PHOTO: Clifftops Retreat
New Zealand’s largest export industry has taken a massive hit from the Covid-19 crisis, but some high-end tourism companies are now looking at a market closer to home in order to keep the doors open.
Luxury lodges and retreats were planning to throw out the welcome mat to more Kiwis once able to venture out again, and with the means to take a holiday.
Tourism Industry Aotearoa saw it as potentially able to save many jobs in the sector.
Bob Haswell has been in the luxury accommodation game for close to 40 years. The former owner of a luxury fishing lodge, who now operated a private retreat in the Tasman District, was under no illusion that the disposable incomes of New Zealanders had been hit drastically, but he was optimistic about recovery.
He has weathered global downturns brought about by serious events in the past, including the September 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States, preceded by fears over the millennium bug, when tourists were afraid to fly.
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