NZ Airports Association criticises New Zealand government's 62% increase for visitor visas

New Zealand is implementing a 62% increase to visitor visa charges from October this year. Certain countries - such as India or China - are required to have the visa ahead of visiting the country. The charges amount to NZ$341 ($203.90). The government said the new visa charges, along with the visitor visa, will free up more than NZ$563 million ($336.9 million) for the country over the next four years. ""The new charges reflect the costs associated with visa processing, assessing and managing more high-risk applications, and increased compliance costs as we deal with higher levels of migrant exploitation, managing more asylum claims, and maintaining and upgrading Immigration New Zealand's ICT systems,"" said the country's minister for immigration Erica Stanford. Stanford said the changes would ensure its immigration system is ""self-funding and more efficient"". However, the NZ Airport Association responded, stating the ""unprecedented increase"" for visitor visas shows an ""urgent need"" for greater engagement from the New Zealand government on its economic growth strategy. ""The cabinet papers supporting the decisions say there was no evidence presented by stakeholders that there could be tourism demand impacts from the fee increases,"" said NZ Airports chief executive Billie Moore. ""That’s because airports and airlines were not consulted."" He argued that ""visitors will be turned off"" by the upcharge and will have an impact on the country's whole economy with less visitors who ""spend money"" in the country. ""That’s why New Zealand spends millions promoting the country to visitors, including in priority visa markets like China and India,"" Moore continued. He added: ""We need to focus on growing that economic contribution urgently.""