Former tourism workers are taking the plunge back into the hard-hit industry, saying they cannot wait to welcome back visitors.
Photo: 123rf
Thousands of tourism workers lost their jobs when the borders slammed shut and revenue dried up for businesses around the country.
Now staffing shortages were one of the industry's most pressing concerns with overseas visitors set to start arriving within a matter of weeks.
It has been a rollercoaster of a few years for Leo Medina who has more than 15 years of tourism experience both in New Zealand and abroad.
When Covid-19 cut his travels short, he managed to get a tourism job during the very first lockdown.
"But I only lasted for a good four months in that company and the company went under. So they had to go into hibernation and I was essentially made redundant, and then I found a job managing a warehouse."
But he said tourism was where he wanted to be.
And last year, he returned to the industry as the Auckland sales manager for AJ Hackett Bungy.
He started during the first week of the city's lockdown with all of the company's sites closed for roughly three months.
"That was a very challenging beginning and then we went straight into Christmas functions and festive season.
"Now, we kind of can see the light at the end of the tunnel and it is very pleasing to be back where I come from and where I'm supposed to be."
It was the excitement and meeting different people that first attracted him to the industry, he said.
"We need doctors, we need journalists, we need so many different professions ... but tourism is where people come to see you when they're happy, when they are on holiday, when they're wanting to do something that actually excited about doing."
Cantabrian Rosie Marchant's spark for tourism first emerged as a 19-year-old on her first solo trip - a Contiki tour of the South Island.
Without an easily identifiable Kiwi accent, she said she could see New Zealand through the eyes of a tourist - and loved what she saw.
Once hooked, she went to an open day at Lincoln University to see what her options were.
It inspired her to quit her day job and start working at a hotel ahead of studying for a Bachelor of Commerce in tourism, hotel management and marketing.
"It's all sort of stemmed from that experience back in 2017. It's just made me realise that I'm very proud to be a New Zealander. I want to show the world what New Zealand has to offer.
"I'm very passionate about New Zealand as an incredible place to live and also to come and visit."
She had a month of university before the first lockdown and her resolve started to waver.
But she said a lecturer reassured her to keep going, telling her there would be light, jobs and tourists at the end of the tunnel.
"When tourists come back, there's jobs that have been vacated, there's people who've left, there's people who have moved into other job types, and those jobs need filling.
"So that's kept me going. The reassurance that when tourists come back that there are jobs that really do need filling."
She was hoping to find a job marketing her home region, Canterbury, as a destination once she finished her degree at the end of the year.
When Ruby Trafford started her hospitality management diploma in Queenstown in 2018, business was booming.
She left the resort town after graduating in 2020 and Covid hit, returning last year.
"I decided to go into retail because I thought it would be a little bit more stable and the hours, they were confirmed, so I did that for a year.
"And now I've just started at The Rees [Hotel Queenstown]. I've been there for about a week now and hopefully it's just waiting for it to pick back up once the borders open."
She couldn't wait for the energy - and tourists - to return to Queenstown.
"Seeing it drastically change makes me want to stay in it to see it get better.
"It was so much fun when I first started and hopefully it will pick back up."
She was reassured by seeing more reservations come through.
With the border reopening only weeks away, the tourism industry was hopeful more new and former workers will get back onboard.