SWINGS AND ROUNDABOUTS

Many tourism asset investors are not suffering as much as they thought they might. In fact, Covid-19 has had a silver lining for owners and investors in hotels and motels.

While the tourism sector as a whole has been smashed around and is still difficult and challenging, the Government has been a sort of saviour for some of the big hotels and hundreds of motels and small hotels, when they were staring into the abyss of no overseas tourists and no income.

The Government has handed out MIQ contracts to more than 30 major hotels, providing them with secure cashflow, and is using small hotels and motels for emergency and transitional housing across New Zealand.