Cheap tickets ‘won’t save tourism jobs’
A $1.2bn package to supercharge domestic travel has been condemned, with the tourism and hospitality industries saying it will ‘leave Sydney and Melbourne for dead’.
A $1.2bn Morrison government package to supercharge domestic travel has been rejected by the tourism and hospitality industries, which say it will fail to prevent hundreds of thousands of job losses while favouring major airlines over the rest of the supply chain.
After a months-long wait for the government to outline post-JobKeeper support, there was broad condemnation and confusion about the stimulus unveiled, with industry saying it was too narrow and would “leave Sydney and Melbourne for dead”.
The centrepiece of the package will see Australians offered 800,000 half-priced airfares to more than a dozen regional centres from April, while cheap loans will be provided to small and medium businesses coming off the $90bn wage subsidy scheme on March 28.
Qantas and Virgin — which hailed the package as a win for all Australians — will be handed “retention payments” of an undisclosed amount to help pay for the wages and training of more than 7000 international aviation employees to ensure planes are ready to fly overseas when the international border reopens.
Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack stressed other towns and cities would be added to the list of 13 destinations that will receive visitors on half-price flights, as Northern Territory senator Sam McMahon revealed she had managed to include Darwin in the package. Adelaide also made the cut.
Scott Morrison expected Qantas and Virgin would “sit down” with the travel industry to start creating packages that would combine discounted airfares, hotel deals and tours. “As the travel industry responds, I think we’ll see more opportunities for this program,” the Prime Minister said. “This is another ticket to recovery for Australia.”
Greyhound Australia chief executive Alex de Waal said the “airfare subsidy initiative” amounted to a death penalty for the long-distance bus company and many of the places it served.
“This initiative is a disgraceful, inelegant and a completely anti-competitive subsidisation of one part of the transport sector, subsidising travel to a biased selection of destinations,” he said.
“Not only will this kill the Greyhound business, it will also siphon domestic tourism from hundreds of equally impacted lower profile destinations such as Rockhampton, Townsville, Longreach, Tennant Creek, Coober Pedy, Wagga Wagga, Mittagong, Yamba, Coffs Harbour, Nambucca Heads and so on, all destinations that enjoy scheduled cost-effective Greyhound services.”
Restaurant and Catering chief executive Wes Lambert said the food and accommodation services sector had expected a national voucher scheme that encompassed the entire supply chain, not just Qantas and Virgin flying to 13 regional destinations.
Mr Lambert appealed to Josh Frydenberg earlier this year to establish a JobKeeper replacement program for the hospitality industry but that was quickly rebuffed.
“While we absolutely understand the government has always needed to subsidise the airlines, there are many other industries in desperate need of subsidy and favouring two businesses (Qantas and Virgin) over hundreds of thousands of other businesses that employ exponentially more employees seems shortsighted,” Mr Lambert said.
“There are 12,794 accommodation hotels across Australia and there are 48,699 cafes and restaurants and caterers. While we certainly support any package for tourism that drives demand, we’re confused at how this package was determined, considering the 13 cities named only have hundreds of accommodation hotels and just thousands, only four figures, of restaurants and cafes.”
The Tourism and Transport Forum, which has also called for a dedicated wage subsidy until the resumption of international travel, said the airline package was a “good start” but nowhere near enough to save wider tourism jobs. The peak body has estimated job losses of more than 300,000 this year, after the industry lost 506,000 full-time positions during 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Some of these jobs will hopefully feel the benefit of the flight stimulus but with the best will in the world, hundreds of thousands of jobs are still at risk,” TTF chief executive Margy Osmond said.
“From accommodation providers and tourism operators through to transport companies, attraction operators, business event organisers and cultural organisations, many businesses are at the wall.”
The Australian Hotels Association and Tourism Accommodation Australia demanded a “fairer deal” for struggling capital cities and regional areas that had missed out on subsidised flights, saying a “job cliff” was looming.
“While this scheme is welcome, it does not satisfy our concerns of the job cliff our sector is facing post-JobKeeper,” AHA chief Stephen Ferguson said.
“The interest-free loans announced today are welcome to some extent but the last thing most of these well-loved local venues need at this time is more loans and even more debt — most pubs are already servicing pre-existing debt due to COVID.”
Hotels in Sydney and Melbourne CBDs have a forward booking rate of less than 10 per cent for the next 90 days, according to the Accommodation Association, which is preparing to make “urgent” representations to the government for extra support.
Adventure tourism pioneer John Sharpe, the owner of Riverlife Brisbane and Story Bridge Adventure Climb, said he remained hopeful the federal government would recognise the difficulties being experienced in capital cities as well as the regions.
He said the COVID crisis had almost wiped out CBD tourism, with locals deserting cities at weekends, next to no corporate travel and no international visitors. “I’m optimistic the government will recognise that the next rescue package has to target the cities, before many of the cafes, restaurants and tourism businesses close,” Mr Sharpe said.
“Brisbane is hurting but Melbourne and Sydney are doing it even tougher.”
Anthony Albanese said the government’s announcement “isn’t a tourism package, it is a selective aviation package”.
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