Australia Pours $52 Million Into Tackling Tourism’s ‘Biggest Challenge in Living Memory’
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A look at where the money will be spent shows Australia is putting it in all the right places with just one thing in mind: getting tourists back. This is what's needed as figures are showing massive losses.
The Australian government on Sunday announced an initial $52 million (A$76 million) tourism recovery package to get tourists to travel across the continent again as it acknowledges that cancellations have been plentiful while forward bookings are few.
While Tourism Australia asserted at the start of the year that international tourism has not been impacted, a statement issued by the Australian Tourism Export Council on Friday said its survey of its inbound tourism members shows massive losses from cancellations and forward bookings.
The majority (70 percent) of individual tourism businesses and inbound tour operators surveyed are suffering losses ranging from $3,443 to $344,296 (A$5,000 to A$500,000) as a result of cancellations, it said. Forward bookings have softened significantly compared to this time last year, with a $3.1 billion ($4.5 billion) impact on the industry, the council estimated. The bushfires come during peak booking period: around 50 percent of UK, Europe, and U.S. bookings are typically captured between December and end of February.
“International visitors are canceling because of fears around air quality, safety and the impact fires have had on our tourism offering as well as a lack of certainty on how long it
