Tour operators set to lose hundreds of thousands of dollars in bookings

NT tourism operators are devastated they will lose hundreds of thousands of dollars in bookings amid ongoing lockdowns and restrictions across Australia, including within the Territory.

NT tour operators are set to lose hundreds of thousands of dollars in bookings amid ongoing lockdowns and restrictions across Australia, including within the Territory.

With the Top End lockdown in place until at least Friday, 2 July, tourism businesses have been hit by a wave of cancellations in recent days, while others have lost months worth of bookings as border restrictions come and go.

Reg Ramston, who operates Central Australian educational tours for students, said he’s only carried out four of the 28 tours he was set to do this dry season.

“It’s a fair loss of business,” he said.

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“Everybody now is probably going to feel a loss of business (because of the Top End lockdown), but I felt it from when Covid first hit, right up until now, still.”

He said the Territory and federal government incentives in place offering matched funding was of not suitable for operators like him.

“When you’ve got no work, you don’t want to spend your dollars,” he said.

“It’s a hard one.

Reg Ramston’s educational tour business has faced cancellations totalling hundreds of thousands of dollars. Picture: Supplied.

“I see people say ‘I’ve lost 20 per cent of my business’ or ‘I’m 10 per cent down’, well I’m 100 per cent down and there’s no incentives, no compensation, except for these ‘we’ll match you dollar-for-dollar grants’.”

Mr Ramston said the loss of revenue, which he’s estimated at $400,000, would affect him, his young family, and his nine staff members, five of whom are Indigenous and working on their traditional lands.

After 32 years in the tourism industry, Mr Ramston said he’s “never seen anything like this”.

“When you’re booked out for the whole year – as I had been – and then you get cancellations a week out, two days out.

“It’s no fault of mine.”

Mr Ramston, who relies mostly on bookings from schools based in Melbourne and Sydney, said he’s preparing to write off the rest of this year for his business.

“I’m supposed to have two groups from Sydney here now,” he said.

“And I’m afraid that Melbourne could shut down straight after the school holidays, and there goes the next two months of business for me, again.”

He said he was itching to get back to providing educational tours for students.

“It’s so different from what they’re used to in the big smoke and then the interactions that they have out here is beneficial to everyone,” he said.