The coronavirus pandemic has had a devastating impact for tourism and hotel operators in New Zealand over the past 5 weeks or so since the government locked down borders to visitors.

This week, LATTE chatted with Kiwi tourism figurehead and CEO/General Manager of The Rees Hotel Queenstown, Mark Rose, to get an update on how his luxury property is coping through the COVID-19 travel crisis, and what his thoughts are on the proposed “trans-Tasman bubble” between Australia and New Zealand, and how long he believes it will take for the market to recover.

Here’s what Mark had to tell us in our Q&A from across ‘the ditch’.How are things at The Rees and more generally in Queenstown?

Being a high end leisure destination Queenstown is carnage with tourism businesses closed, the airport closed and Level 4 Lockdown, meaning no regional travel of any sort.

How has COVID-19 affected room occupancies at The Rees? (At this time of year, what level of occupancy would you traditionally expect of the hotel and residences?)

Occupancy started dropping around the third week in March and the hotel was empty (and still is) for all of April. Last April The Rees ran at 76.5% OCC in April 19 versus 0% in April 20 – May is generally our quietest month but we will run at 1% if we are lucky, down from mid 38% in May 19.

What are the prospects for the short-term, mid-term (beyond winter in 2020) and long-term (2021 and beyond) at the property?

It is very difficult to determine as there are three questions I need answered before I can make a call:

1. A move to Alert Level One where Domestic travel via air is possible and regulations around social distancing have been relaxed allowing us to offer a stripped down service level. A ski season will make all the difference to Queenstown and Wanaka.
2. An economic bubble containing Australia and the Pacific (New Caledonia is a good market for us) will be an immense shot in the arm – direct flights with Australia being my biggest market. An extension to this economic bubble to include Singapore, Taiwan, Sth Korea, Japan and dare I say, China – countries who have C19 under control.
3. Renewal/cancellation of the wage subsidy. We have an awesome team and culture and putting it into hibernation will be difficult – I say hibernation as we will be back

Short term there is an amazing opportunity for New Zealanders and Australians to experience a world class destination/hotel at a leisurely pace. I don’t expect any/many other nationalities to be allowed to enter New Zealand this year and believe that the UK and US could be at least 12 months away.

New Zealand has recently downgraded its COVID-19 restrictions from Level 4 to Level 3. Has this had any effect on The Rees?

Not really – we are bringing in our teams in their own “Rees bubbles” to work around the hotel for 20 hours a week over four days. This was really about having them feel connected as many of our team do not have family/infrastructure to fall back on in New Zealand. We have HS initiatives in lace to ensure everyone is safe and sound. When our guests return our hotel will be in great shape, offering everything you would expect from a 5-star hotel.