Australian tourism chiefs pin funding hopes on Jobkeeper programme to help stricken sector

The Australian Tourism Export Council (ATEC) has welcomed suggestions the country’s tourism industry may benefit from unallocated funds from the Jobkeeper programme which would be redirected to the stricken industry. “Export tourism has been the hardest hit export industry this year. From the bushfires which saw our peak tourist season disappear, to the fact we will not see any international visitors before next summer, 2020 will be remembered as the year from hell for export tourism,” ATEC Managing Director Peter Shelley said 25 May. “Tourism is a huge part of Australia’s economy and export tourism has been one of our strongest growth industries over the past decade, delivering more than A$45bn (US29.36bn) in visitor spending last year – it’s an industry we can’t afford to lose.” Shelley said while domestic tourism would see some recovery in coming months, the inbound industry would continue to have little income well into next year, and even then at a greatly diminished level. ATEC has met with 40 of the country’s major inbound tour operators (ITOs), the businesses which provide travel services to a huge proportion of Australia’s nine million international visitors each year. “These businesses feed international visitors into our regions and help support the one million people employed in the tourism industry across Australia, but this year their contribution to our economy will be negligible,” Shelley went on. “These businesses are a major part of our industry’s supply chain and, come September, will have no income and no way to continue to employ the small number of people they have kept on the books. “These businesses provide a vital role in the tourism supply chain and without them, we will face huge obstacles in getting back into the international visitor marketplace and regaining the ground we have lost, so any measures that support their continued existence will be a huge benefit to tourism businesses across the country.”