Laura Douglas`s tourism start-up, a farm surrounded by snow-tipped mountains in southern New Zealand, was attracting hundreds of mostly foreign visitors a month until the novel coronavirus pandemic brought it to a sudden halt in March.

"It`s like I`ve been mourning the loss of my business," Douglas, 33, said in a phone interview with Reuters, adding she had to take on a second job as a vet to pay the bills during a strict lockdown that included sealing the country`s borders.

The rebound for New Zealanders who are reliant on tourism is expected to be slow, in marked contrast to how the tourism sector is faring in Vietnam, another nation that was hailed as a success story in Asia for containing the novel coronavirus.

Both countries have emerged from lockdown virtually virus-free, lifting all restrictions except those on international travel. While New Zealand`s tourism sector is struggling pending arrivals from abroad, Vietnam`s has rebounded, according to travel data and industry members.

This is thanks to how much domestic tourism has filled the gap, reflecting in part how badly the coronavirus hit the two economies. While New Zealand`s economy is expected to contract by as much as 20% in the first half of the year, according to the central bank, Vietnam has kept its yearly growth target above 5%.

July is normally peak travel season in New Zealand but scheduled flights are down 40% compared to the same month last year and even many of those are being canceled, according to figures from travel analytics firm Cirium.

Weekly demand for Airbnb and Vrbo properties through July are down 55% from last year and a recovery is unlikely until later this year, according to forward-looking bookings from AirDNA.

Across the ocean in Vietnam, the story is very different. In July, more than 26,000 flights are expected to transport 5 million people, increases of 16% and 24% from last year.

Nguyen Thi Thuy Anh, owner of a travel agency called Minh Viet Booking, says he is handling a surge in bookings as businesses slash prices to attract local travelers.

In a country with poor rail and road infrastructure, air travel is already a popular mode of transport, and even more so now, with airlines adding routes and offering tickets for as low as 69,000 Vietnamese dong (USD 3).

Weekend Road Trips

In New Zealand, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is asking people to "experience your own backyard". She is urging employers to consider four-day work weeks and has said the government is actively considering more public holidays this year so people can travel.

On Friday, Ardern is launching the country`s ski season in the tourist destination of Queenstown, hoping that will give another boost to domestic travel.

Some New Zealanders appear to be heeding her encouragement and taking weekend road trips.

Demand for hotels and short-term rentals, while depressed overall, still ticks up over the weekends according to STR, an analytics firm that looks specifically at the hotel industry.

But tourism business owners say a pot of NZ$400 million (USD 257 million) set aside by the government to subsidise wages and other costs for the industry will not be enough to tide it over while foreign tourists are still barred.

Foreigners account for around half the NZ$16.1 billion (USD 10.34 billion) that tourism contributes to GDP in New Zealand, a hole economist Peter Clough says will be difficult to plug with just domestic travelers.