"Losing luggage, outrageous wait times and lack of communication from airport staff all make New Zealand a less desirable repeat holiday option."
International tourism is recovering after the devastation of the pandemic and he said every "touchpoint" from the moment of arrival needed to be pleasant for visitors.
"As a tourism operator you want to think about every touchpoint of having it as nice and as professional as possible, and they probably skip that element at the airport."
Going through MPI screening was "unwelcoming" and unique to New Zealand and needed improving, said Button.
"It just looks so bad for the gateway and for connectivity around the country."
International tourists were often arriving after a 12-hour plus flight and if they missed domestic connections this could be highly disruptive and costly.
He said those visitors were often tired and anything to make the arrival experience more pleasant should be done.
Tourism Industry Aotearoa chief executive Rebecca Ingram noted that Auckland Airport international arrivals was a complex system and problems were compounded by bad weather, spikes in passenger numbers and delayed flights.
“Obviously we want to ensure all visitors have the best experience they can, and we know the airport has been leading good work across all parts of the visitor processing system to reduce waiting times.’'
The Ministry of Primary Industries said 20 extra staff will be redeployed to work at the airport over the holiday period.
“Biosecurity is just one part of the arrival process and is at the end of that system, which includes disembarking, baggage collection, and passport checking,” said Mike Inglis, Northern Regional Commissioner, Biosecurity NZ.
“Factors such as more flights arriving late or early contribute to queue congestion because very large numbers of people enter the arrivals system at the same time. That’s why taking a system-wide approach to improving the arrivals process is important.”
He said recent initiatives by Biosecurity New Zealand to streamline passenger flows included establishing express lanes for arriving international passengers assessed as low biosecurity risk.
“We want to get lower-risk passengers through the biosecurity process as quickly as possible. To this end, we are running trials this weekend that will use information from digital declarations to identify low-risk air passengers before they arrive at the biosecurity area. This information will be used to direct eligible passengers to a special area for processing."
As the airport rebuilt the arrivals hall MPI faced some space restrictions, but it was making adjustments "where possible.”
Rotorua Canopy Tours’ Button said bookings were ahead of pre-Covid levels, helped by strong support from domestic tourists.
Button said Rotorua was located well for visitors who could drive there, but he worried about high regional airfares deterring travel to other centres.
The lack of affordable domestic flights caused international and domestic travellers to stick to main city centres, neglecting tourism towns outside main trunk centres, he said.
Meanwhile, Tourism Industry Aotearoa is concerned about water problems in visitor hotspot Queenstown.
“This incident reinforces the need for sustainable funding for tourism so there can be adequate investment by local councils in shared critical infrastructure," said TIA chief executive Rebecca Ingram.
“The boil notice adds pressure to the tourism community in Queenstown as it looks ahead to their second summer of recovery. But the industry is finding solutions quickly and operators are very resilient."
Grant Bradley has been working at the Herald since 1993. He is the Business Herald’s deputy editor and covers aviation and tourism.
