In an exclusive Global Travel Media interview late last week Kevin O’Sullivan, Chief Executive Officer of the New Zealand Cruise Association told me that not only had the NZ Government failed to honour an “all of government approval” given back in December 2020 by the NZ Director-General of Health for PONANT’s Le Laperouse to operate in New Zealand but also that the PONANT Le Laperouse debacle should never have happened if the relevant NZ Government departments spoke to each other.
He also said that while it was only one ship and while that was bad enough, Le Laperouse operating in New Zealand under very strict agreed protocols had given the industry a great deal of hope that one-day cruising would come back and also there were a number of operators and staff depending on Le Laperouse operating in New Zealand with very widespread effect in terms of benefit and impact on the New Zealand economy, now lost.
Very interestingly in my discussion with Kevin O’Sullivan and my research on this debacle, it is clear that the approval given by New Zealand Government’s Director General of Health back in December was a whole of government approval, which covered all sectors of the government and had taken into account any COVID-19 risks and yet it is clear that the NZ Government reneged on this approval.
It gets worse in that the reason which the NZ government gave for their change of mind, driven by the NZ Minister for Immigration and Department of Immigration was that they were not willing to issue visas for what they called “non-essential” hotel crew onboard the ship, with the reasons, not COVID-19 related at all.
If COVID-19 had been their real concern they could have simply said no to Le Laperouse docking in New Zealand, but as it was the NZ Government embarrassingly appeared to come up with what appears to be a ridiculously weak and irrelevant hotel crew visa excuse.
In addition, while the NZ Minister for Immigration did refer to COVID-19 in his announcement, his fellow NZ Director-General of Health, it is reasonable to assume, even presume, that his department had already fully investigated any COVID-19 risk and was satisfied and given approval, with as a result it appears that the only excuse that the NZ Government could come up with was the hotel crew visa refusals.
In what has become a matter for great international negativity and embarrassment for the New Zealand Government and also serious concerns by cruise ship operators that the NZ Government may do the same thing again in the future, which could have a massive economic impact, Kevin O’Sullivan says it is a great pity that the NZ Governments departments hadn’t spoken with each other and agreed on a consensus, with if they had, this could have all been avoided, with the question cruise operators will be asking being regarding the future and whether the cruise industry can trust the New Zealand Government or will they do the same thing again, issuing approvals and then reneging on them?
In an earlier statement, Kevin O’Sullivan said that the New Zealand Cruise Association was shocked and quite simply bewildered to see that at the very last-minute Immigration NZ chose to prevent the Ponant ship Le Laperouse from coming to New Zealand despite having the green light from Health, denying entry for some of the ship’s crew who they have deemed to be non-essential.
He said that It is a case of one Ministry giving and another taking away and reiterated that Government departs must begin to talk to each other, not take separate action which once again greatly harms the tourism industry, with PONANT having done everything that was requested from NZ Government in order to offer safe domestic cruising in New Zealand, including complying with all the COVID-19 requirements to isolate crew, with the ship had also been slow steaming from its last port, testing everyone on board regularly.
Kevin O’Sullivan also said the 700 kiwi guests who had planned on enjoying a voyage will also be most upset, with this decision by Immigration tarnishing New Zealand as a cruise friendly destination, undoing years of hard work, adding, it is quite simply not good enough.
One element in all this that surprised me is the absolute silence from the Prime Minister of New Zealand, Jacinta Ardern, who usually seems very ready, able and more than willing to face the media to speak on a wide range of controversial topics, but not on this one it appears!
Interesting!
Enough from me, to hear what Kevin O’Sullivan had to say CLICK HERE or the video below:-
A report and interview with Kevin O’Sullivan Kevin O’Sullivan, Chief Executive Officer, New Zealand Cruise Association by John Alwyn-Jones
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