Open all borders, tourism bosses say

Scott Morrison and the national cabinet must open all state borders and restart overseas travel by September, say tourism industry heavyweights.

Flight Centre chief executive Graham Turner: It was imperative to ‘get international flights back into Europe and Asia’. Picture: Liam Kidston

Scott Morrison and the national cabinet must open all state borders and sign international health deals to restart overseas travel by September, as tourism industry heavyweights warn federal and state leaders to “not go backwards in easing restrictions”.

A new Tourism Restart Taskforce plan, sent to the Prime Minister on Friday, calls for fresh guidelines to lead the next phase of economic recovery and for state governments not to wind back restrictions unless “serious and transparent health benchmarks are compromised”.

The taskforce leading the plan has cautioned state leaders to “live with the virus” and support reopening strategies, despite the fresh coronavirus outbreak in Victoria, where 66 new cases were recorded on Friday.

Sydney Airport chief executive Geoff Culbert also is pushing for international travel to resume as quickly as possible, declaring he was “getting daily calls from airports and airlines throughout Asia who are raring to restore travel links to Australia”.

The tourism plan strengthens calls for JobKeeper to be extended to the end of the year for businesses hit hard by COVID-19 restrictions amid warnings 42 per cent of tourism and hospitality operators will be forced to the wall by the end of September.

Tourism heavyweights on the taskforce include Tourism Australia chairman Bob East, Tourism Accommodation Australia chairman Martin Ferguson, Tourism and Transport Forum Australia chairman Bruce Baird, Australian Chamber — Tourism executive chairman John Hart and Flight Centre chief executive Graham Turner.

The strategy, led by former Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry president Jeremy Johnson, offers a “runway back to operations” for the sector, which last year earned $45.4bn in international tourism and $80.7bn in domestic tourism.

It identifies long-term issues for the sector, including the need for greater tourism marketing support, the overhaul of “demand dampening” revenue measures, such as the passenger movement charge, and stronger regulation of insurers so tourism and hospitality businesses have access to fair and affordable policies.

In his letter to Mr Morrison, Mr Johnson warned the supply of tourism services required a “significant lead time from creating demand to conversion and then from booking to travel”. He requested an “indication of the nature of health parameters that would allow further expansion of our travel, business events and hospitality”.

British Airways this week outlined plans to restart a range of international services, including some long haul routes.

Mr Turner said state governments could not aim to eliminate the virus, saying it was imperative to “get international flights back into Europe and Asia”. The resumption of domestic travel and international travel would resurrect “hundreds of thousands and jobs”, he said.

“Europe is all starting up again in the last week or so. But they still have reasonable levels of the virus. They consider it reasonably under control,” Mr Turner told The Weekend Australian.

“One of the big things is the federal government has always said that they are here to flatten the curve; to suppress the virus. But some of the state governments look like they are trying to eradicate (it) … which is impossible according to most of the expert epidemiologists.”

Mr Hart slammed arguments that an increase in domestic travel would make up for losses in international tourism as “insanity” and argued overseas flights should return in full by December 15.

“Even if every person that was going to travel outbound from Australia … converted to a domestic trip, we would see a replacement of the $45bn (in international tourism earnings) in the order of $7bn,” he said.

“Air capacity should return at somewhere near normal … (But) the government takes on a role in reassuring people that it’s safe to travel. That’s got to be not just leisure travel but business travel.”

Mr Ferguson, warned the spike in community transmission in Melbourne was a “real kick in the guts”. The former ACTU president and ALP resources minister warned last month’s decision to delay lifting the cap in Victorian restaurants and pubs from 20 to 50 people had forced businesses that had bought perishables — such as fish or meat — into carrying extra debt.

“I think the government clearly had a road map in its mind. But the circumstances of Victoria have derailed it,” he said.

The new tourism strategy urges the Morrison government to continue extending visas for all overseas workers and holiday-makers currently in Australia.