Without vaccine, Cook Islands is opening its tourism

Published on : Monday, May 3, 2021

The tourism operators of Cook Islands along with others residing in the island archipelago are set to welcome the recommencement of the inbound quarantine-free travel in nation in South Pacific.

Mark Brown, the Prime ministers and Jacinda Ardern, have declared this afternoon that the international borders of this 15 island archipelago will remain open both ways from Monday, May 17th, New Zealand time. That is the Sunday in Rarotonga.

The very next, Air NZ is advertising economy flights for $270 and will be ramping up the flight frequency to three/four a week from June 7th. Travelers must have spent the previous 14 days in New Zealand.

Greg Foran, the chief executive of the airlines has explained that it was an important achievement for the two countries. Of the 446,000 Kiwis who took a trip to the Pacific Islands in 2019, almost 110,000 went to Rarotonga.
“We’re certain our Cook Island neighbours will welcome Kiwis with open arms for a much-needed boost for the local economy.”

For the two countries’ health directors, newsroom learned that there is a final checklist to tick off in the coming fortnight, before the residents of New Zealand are able to check in their snorkels and togs finally for their flights to Rarotonga.

Also, New Zealand is supplying Cooks, Niue, Tokelau) with vaccine however, the limited availability of the Pfizer and the time taken to train vaccinators means the 13,000 residents of the country are not expected to be vaccinated until after borders reopen.