New Zealand and Australian seniors to share discounts

Discounts for seniors are set to go trans-Tasman with Senior Citizens Minister John Carter announcing reciprocal arrangements for the SuperGold Card with Australian state and territorial governments.

“Under this initiative, both New Zealand’s SuperGold and Australia’s state and territory Seniors Card holders will be able to get discounts when travelling in Australia and New Zealand,” said Mr Carter.

“The over 65s are a fast growing population who are travelling more, with over 100,000 Kiwi seniors heading to Australia each year. The discounts will help their tourist dollar go further.

“70,000 Australian seniors head for our shores each year and spend over $131 million while they are here. The arrangement will encourage more Aussies to head over and bolster our tourism industry.

“With all the travel our citizens do between our two countries, I can see this as a great opportunity to grow seniors tourism and build on the ANZAC spirit.”

There are over 1,300 New Zealand SuperGold business partners with 5,600 outlets nationwide. The discounts offered through the scheme will be met by the businesses involved who will voluntarily opt into the agreement.

The arrangement will not include state or nationally funded initiatives such as the free off-peak travel available to SuperGold Card users in New Zealand.

The Ministry of Social Development and its Australian counterparts will be encouraging businesses to provide discounts and special offers to cardholders travelling in Australia and New Zealand.

Mr Carter says he is looking forward to the arrangements being progressed over the next few months.