Covid 19 coronavirus: Cook Islands businesses disappointed at travel bubble communication

The travel bubble is expected to be high on the agenda for Cook Islands PM. Photo / 123RF

Frustration is building in the Cook Islands as it waits for a travel bubble with New Zealand.

The bubble is expected to be high on the agenda for Cook Islands Prime Minister Mark Brown, who arrives in New Zealand today - the first foreign head of state to visit since the Covid-19 pandemic.

Work towards a bubble is ongoing, including the building of a Covid-19 PCR testing lab in the Cook Islands. It was due to open this month but due to shipping delays it was now expected to open mid-April.

The Cooks Islands is also preparing to roll out its Bluetooth-enabled contact tracing app, CookSafe+.

However, Cook Islands Chamber of Commerce chief executive Eve Hayden and Cook Islands Tourism Industry Council president Liana Scott say there is not enough communication coming from the Cook Islands Government about what was needed to prepare.

Hayden said the private sector had done as much as they felt they could but "we are probably not being communicated with directly, from our side, what New Zealand needs in order to open the borders".

She said people were "standing by, ready" to do whatever was needed.

Similarly, Scott said the rhetoric was only that things would open when it was safe.

"But no one's saying 'when things are safe then here's the ten things you need to do in order to make sure it's going to be safe'.

"It's just 'when things are safe' in these broad terms that you don't even know what that means."

Scott said people needed concrete information rather than shifting goal posts, which had given some people false hope.

"I think keeping the hope or giving incorrect timelines is just as damaging as not doing it."

She said more detail around the future of a bubble would help people gauge a better picture of how they should prepare. That included having "a timeline with strategic planning".

Scott said there should be more honest and open conversations because of the levels of financial concern people had.

"Maybe I'm just better off just closing the doors, getting a job in New Zealand and coming back when things do settle."

NZME has made repeated requests to speak to Prime Minister Mark Brown.