Immigration Minister Michael Wood announced an extension of visas for offshore working holiday-makers, all of whom would have open work rights, and could work in New Zealand for 12 months with multiple entry rights.
The Government has now given them until January 31, 2023 to arrive — a three-month extension.
"We’ve also doubled the working holiday scheme caps with a one-off increase to recognise the spots that were unused last year due to the border restrictions," Mr Wood said.
That meant the capped working holiday schemes that still had open spaces had their caps doubled on September 8, and remained open.
Those capped schemes that had already filled and closed began reopening with extra places available from September 8.
All would have reopened by early next month, to ensure each country got the benefit of this year’s allocation, he said.
However, Hilton Queenstown general manager Chris Ehmann believed there would be no big impact seen in the resort, or anywhere, as a result.
While adding more working holiday visas was great, "we are not seeing the numbers needed".
"Adding more availability does not add arrivals," he said.
"That said, many countries where there potentially would be more interest ... the numbers remain highly restricted.
"My concern remains that it is evident the plan is to fill all entry-level roles with working holiday visas, instead of work visas, as they only open them to mid skill, high salaries."
Queenstown Lakes Mayor Glyn Lewers said yesterday’s announcement would do little to satisfy the demand for employees in the district and it was "lacking urgency".
"All they’ve done is give them more time to come in.
"I think they’ve got to be a bit more forgiving on the caps and allocations — how can they come up with a ‘cap’, when they obviously don’t understand the demand from the business sector here?"
Mr Lewers questioned what was being done to incentivise those 34,200 people who had working holiday visas approved to arrive in New Zealand, given only 14,400 had turned up.
"They’re obviously not turning up in the numbers you’d hoped for, because now you’re extending the time limit.
"What I’m hearing from the business sector is they’d like certainty of when [working holiday visa holders] will actually turn up.
"All we’ve done here ... is give more uncertainty.
"I would have thought actually encouraging these people to get here quick-smart ... before the rubber hits the road with the summer season ... is where the effort should have gone."
Last week, Tourism Minister Stuart Nash said most of those visa holders tended to come during the summer months, "so we’re expecting a good chunk to arrive pre-Christmas".
While there was a "global war for labour", and New Zealand was competing with Canada, the United Kingdom, the United States and Australia, he believed New Zealand was in a good position to attract workers.
"Labour’s highly mobile, labour is looking for a good home [and] I think we’ve got a very, very strong value proposition in New Zealand ... it’s just a matter of getting people in here now."
