Queenstown tourism operators are furious a Covid-19 border bungle could stall plans for a transtasman bubble.
They say the resort has suffered too much for such lapses to set back plans for a potential lifeline for struggling businesses and their workers.
Two women who arrived from Britain were granted compassionate leave to drive from Auckland to Wellington on Saturday without first being tested for Covid-19, and have since tested positive.
It has resulted in the military being brought in to manage border quarantine and managed isolation.
Nomad Safaris managing director David Gatward-Ferguson said news of the lapse had not gone down well in the resort.
"The level of anger from people I’ve met about it has been amazing.
"We’ve all done a lot of work to get to this level."
The country needed to "get its act together", and he hoped intense pressure would now be brought to bear on the Government to tighten border security and revisit contact tracing requirements.
The Government’s tracing app was "completely inadequate", Mr Gatward-Ferguson said.
"I actually think it’s a good exercise in making all those in power to stop making stupid mistakes and get a proper system in place."
Queenstown Lakes Mayor Jim Boult said he was "disappointed and dismayed" at the lapse, and the district had gone through too much pain to be let down by such failures.
"I understand these things happen, but this is so important to New Zealand, it simply can’t happen again."
Mr Boult, who also chairs tourism giant Wayfare, said he could only hope planning for a transtasman bubble would not be set back.
Totally Tourism director Mark Quickfall said the Government needed to respond by implementing the "robust and bullet-proof" processes necessary to make the bubble happen.
The Trans-Tasman Safe Border Group had appeared to be making good progress towards a "safe travel" system without the need for a 14-day quarantine.
Domestic tourism was only a small part of the resort’s business, and a transtasman bubble would increase activity to 50% of pre-Covid levels.
"If we miss this opportunity, it will cost many, many jobs."
NZONE Skydive business development manager Derek Melnick said the bungle was a reminder the border was vulnerable, and the Government needed to reconsider how much testing was being carried out during the quarantine process for overseas arrivals.
"It managed the early part of the crisis really well, so hopefully there’s learnings out of this."
A transtasman bubble needed to happen as soon as possible.
"I’m confident it doesn’t have to jeopardise the work that’s being done."
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters said yesterday the latest Covid-19 cases had not put a transtasman bubble at risk.
However, National Party leader Todd Muller said they made it "less likely".
"It makes the opportunity to connect with Australia further away, the opportunity to connect with international students less likely, and the tens of thousands of New Zealanders whose jobs will be at risk know that to be true."
— Additional reporting RNZ
