On the road again: family trades in coronavirus cabin fever for freedom of a tent
With tourism losing almost $10bn a month from the collapse in international travel, families such as the Eatons are the hope of the side.
With tourism losing almost $10bn a month from the collapse in international travel, families such as the Eatons are the hope of the side as they pack the car for a long-awaited camping trip this weekend in their first taste of freedom after lockdown.
This week South Australia became the first state to axe all restrictions on intrastate travel and is set to provide first insights into the role that lockdown-weary Australian families will play in stemming the losses from the international visitor ban.
Adelaide couple Kathryn and Russell Eaton needed no encouragement to hit the road on Friday with 10-year-old twins Cooper and Jasper. They had to cancel a camping trip at Robe with another family on the Easter weekend because of COVID-19.
Now the Eatons have responded to the call to travel, heading to the beach township of Aldinga this weekend with the same group of friends for a camping stay at the local caravan park.
“No one needed to twist our arms,” Ms Eaton said. “It’s been ages since we went anywhere … The kids are really excited and, frankly, my husband and I are just happy to be going anywhere after being cooped up for so long.”
Australians spend about $50bn a year on overseas travel, $3.3bn of it by South Australians who in the four days since Premier Steven Marshall lifted restrictions are now looking to their own backyard for holidays in huge numbers.
“One family jumped in their car on Monday and just turned up at one of the stations at Wilpena Pound in the Flinders Ranges and asked if they could stay the night,” SA Tourism Industry Council chief executive Shaun De Bruyn told The Australian.
“The river is going extremely well; people are ringing up looking for holiday rentals on the Murray and returning to their shacks in big numbers. People have obviously been crawling up the walls and for the industry to bounce back, we need to shift quickly from those mass cancellations we had before Easter to people booking places out again.”
Mr Marshall appointed himself Tourism Minister in January after Kangaroo Island and the Adelaide Hills were ravaged by bushfires, suffering huge losses in tourism revenue. Those losses have been compounded tenfold by the pandemic, but he told The Australian SA’s strategy would be to try to convert as much of the annual $3.3bn international travel spend into local stays.
“We know if we can get people back to some intrastate travel, that’s going to create jobs, it’s going to keep people employed, grow the economy and these things are really, really important at this time,” Mr Marshall said.
“I know our regions are ready to welcome back South Australians with open arms, and equally, that South Australians are keen to get back out there. Now more than ever we need to embrace these communities and encourage South Australians to visit and spend money at the local bakeries, local service stations and cafes.”
The SA Tourism Industry Council urged the government to consider providing extra funds to regional tourism organisations.
Beyond that, the council said fellow industry councils in other states were hoping state governments everywhere would campaign aggressively to urge people to visit their own regional centres.
“It is going to be vital to our survival,” Mr De Bruyn said.
“Often it is the locals who are the last to know what is going on in their backyards. If we can get the message out that now is the time for people to explore their home state, we can help a lot of businesses that are really struggling.”
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