Tourism leaders urge states to stop squabbling and open borders
Tourism leaders have stepped up their attacks on state premiers, urging them to reopen state borders.
Tourism leaders have stepped up their attacks on state premiers, urging them to show courageous leadership, stop deliberately hijacking the livelihoods of many Australians, and reopen borders given the lack of locally acquired COVID-19 cases.
With the travel plans of millions of residents of greater Sydney and Melbourne having been disrupted during the peak summer holiday season and the economic hit to many businesses, tourism bosses say the “ad hoc border closures” are a blow to confidence.
One of Queensland’s most prominent entrepreneurs, Jamie Pherous, the founder of the global business travel company, ASX-listed Corporate Travel Management, on Thursday called on state premiers to “stop the fear mongering and interstate squabbling”.
Meanwhile Matt Cameron-Smith, chief executive of Voyages Indigenous Tourism Australia, who operates five resorts in the shadow of Uluru, on Thursday night called for a standard approach to the closure of state borders by all state governments.
“Closing state borders is a tough decision for any politician to make,” Mr Cameron-Smith said. “(But) the country would like a national, standard approach.”
His comments came as Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk stepped up her border closures. She had previously said she would review the Sunshine State border closure on Friday, January 8 but on Thursday she announced that travellers from Greater Sydney won’t be able to enter Queensland until at least the end of January.
“I know this is very disappointing for people during this time,” Ms Palasczuk said. “But we are concerned still about Greater Sydney.”
Despite recent clusters in NSW, there were zero locally acquired COVID-19 cases reported in NSW yesterday.
Tourism Lobby Groups such as the Tourism & Transport Forum Australia have urged the easing of restrictions, saying tourism spending will almost certainly halve over the holiday season.
Queensland’s major tourism leaders, including Mr Pherous, were outraged by the decision, saying the state Premiers were “deliberately hijacking the livelihoods of many Australians”.
“There are zero community cases but you would think Australia is on the verge of falling apart due to the mass hysteria whipped up by our politicians’ mainstream media,” Mr Pherous told The Australian.
“Yet again, for the fourth time, state governments demonstrate they can comfortably and confidently manage the situation.
“So shutting borders on a few daily infections in a country with 25 million people is a blatant over-reaction and deliberately hijacking the livelihoods of many Australians,” Mr Pherous said.
“We need to immediately stop the interstate squabbling, stop the fear mongering, back the system and work together as one nation to instil confidence back into the wider community,” he said.
“Given the vaccine rollout commences on a large scale in only a few weeks, surely it’s time for government leadership to take back the reins from the chief medical officers and show strong leadership by making a deliberate shift to a measured and proportionate management of the pandemic and rhetoric that instils confidence to bring back the economy and life to normal, rather than the hysteria fed up to us all on a daily basis.”
Flight Centre managing director Graham Turner recently told The Australian there was no logic to shutting state borders.
“Basically, NSW is doing everything necessary and appears to have the outbreak under control,” the Brisbane-based Mr Turner said.
“Shutting borders has a huge effect on tourism. Queensland’s tourism industry, particularly in the north, has been damaged badly.”
South Australia has also put in a hard border shutting out the residents of Greater Sydney. The key tourism states of Tasmania, Western Australian and the Northern Territory have also brought down border restrictions shutting out Greater Sydney residents.
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