Tourism sector shutdown costing NT economy $200m a month, says head of new taskforce

THE NT economy loses at least $200 million each month the tourism industry remains in hibernation, the head of a new high-powered taskforce has warned.

THE NT economy loses at least $200 million each month the tourism industry remains in hibernation, the head of a new high-powered taskforce has warned.

Head of NT’s Tourism Rebound Taskforce Michael Bridge said the sector, which pulls about $2.4 billion into the local economy each year, had “ground to a halt” and would need at least three months to get up and running once authorities gave domestic or international travel the go-ahead.

And the proposed trans-Tasman bubble involving lifting travel restrictions between Australia and NZ may not be of great benefit to the NT as Kiwis aren’t traditionally a major tourist market.

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Travellers from the UK, US, and Germany, all countries still firm in the grips of the pandemic, make up most of the NT’s tourism market.

Mr Bridge, who is also Tourism NT’s chair of the board of commissioners, said the newly created nine-member taskforce was working to provide the NT Government with advice on a recovery road map for the sector to emerge sustainably into the “new normal”.

This will need to address a change in travel habits in a post-pandemic world, including if travellers remain comfortable with long-haul flights, train trips or cruises.

“There’s a few things we need to ensure and consider … (one being) tourism can’t just bounce back on two to four weeks notice,” Mr Bridge said.

However, he is optimistic the NT’s “great open spaces” and national icons “lends itself favourably” to a tourism bounce back, particularly to those that have been cooped up in inner-city apartments during lockdown.

“One of our challenges is when (travel) restrictions lift in four to six months, we are coming into the low season,” Mr Bridge said.

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NZ Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, who joined a meeting of National Cabinet on May 5, 2020. Picture: Hagen Hopkins/Getty Images

NZ Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, after dialling in to a meeting of national cabinet yesterday, said she felt “comfortable and confident” her nation wouldn’t receive COVID-19 if travel between the two countries resumed.

But Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the arrangement could only occur once interstate travel restrictions were lifted.