Travel industry workers call to extend JobKeeper, as international travel unlikely to resume soon

The travel industry is calling for JobKeeper to be extended while a ban on overseas travel remains in force and even interstate borders can shut without notice.

Bunnik Tours staff members Zoe Francis, Kristi Rutten, Jennifer Calnin, Bailey Bunnik and Jeremy van Heerde are on JobKeeper and are campaigning to save the travel industry. Picture: Tom Huntley

Up to 60 per cent of tourism businesses will go bust without help beyond the JobKeeper lifeline, the industry says.

Tourism bosses will hold crisis talks with Minister Dan Tehan on Wednesday, pleading the case for additional government support after the safety net expires on March 28.

South Australian travel leader Dennis Bunnik, of Bunnik Tours, says there is a strong argument for maintaining JobKeeper exclusively for the travel industry because it has “copped the brunt of the (COVID-19) pandemic”.

He warned as well as job losses, the nation faced losing a skills set if the international travel ban in place since late March last year continued this year.

“These are highly skilled people in a complex industry,” he said.

“A 36-night, six-country tour of South America doesn’t just magically happen. And these are the people you rely on if something goes wrong.”

Mr Bunnik has laid off staff and most now still employed are on JobKeeper and on reduced hours.

“It’s been very tough – even domestically borders get shut with no warning,” he said. “JobKeeper needs to be extended or a payment must be made specifically for the travel industry which is in dire straits. Other industries are recovering but no industry can withstand one year of no business, which is, we worry, is turning into two years.

“JobKeeper is scheduled to end in late March, yet our international borders are likely to remain closed for much of this year.

“For the travel industry, this spells disaster.

“Many thousands of jobs have been lost already and those that remain are hanging on by a thread. That thread is JobKeeper. Without it, our industry is simply not viable while our borders remain closed.”

Industry leaders have launched a #savethetravelindustry campaign, calling for the JobKeeper extension.

A petition on change.org calling for JobKeeper to be extended for the tourism industry had attracted more than 17,000 supporters as of 10pm Tuesday.

Tom Manwaring, chair of the Australian Federation of Travel Agents, said the industry was in crisis.“It will decimate the industry if there’s no further support after April 1,” he said. “We estimate the collapse could be as high as 60 per cent.”

Local tour operators enjoyed some periods of activity during the COVID downturn as borders reopened but Mr Manwaring said international travel agents had had “no respite”.

Before COVID, three in four Australians used a travel agent when going overseas.

Mr Manwaring said these agents’ expertise would be needed once international travel resumed – but it was not possible to just “mothball” an entire industry in the interim.

Mr Tehan suggested some continued support for the industry could be forthcoming, saying he would “continue to consult and work with the tourism sector across Australia, on a post-JobKeeper plan for tourism.”

The Federal Government had supported the industry during COVID-19 in other ways, he said, including a $5m domestic holiday advertising campaign, $308m for regional airlines, $128m for the COVID-19 Consumer Travel Support Program and $50m for the regions.