Tourism won’t survive beyond spring, industry chiefs warn

Tourism leaders have warned most businesses in the sector are small to medium-sized enterprises that may not survive.

The near-deserted tourist town of Palm Cove, 30 minutes north of Cairns, far-north Queensland, is usually. Picture: Brendan Radke

Tourism leaders have warned most businesses in the sector are small- to medium-sized enterprises that may not survive if state ­borders are not reopened in time for spring.

Tourism Australia managing ­director Phillipa Harrison said the sector was facing its biggest challenge and many operators faced collapse if travel restrictions were maintained for an extended period.

The warning was backed by Tourism Industry Council Tasmania, whose chief executive Luke Martin warned of “economic Armageddon” if domestic tourism did not restart in the spring.

Ms Harrison said the industry had “completely closed”.

“It is a matter of restart not recovery,” she said. “Of the 300,000 businesses that form the tourism and hospitality industry in Australia, 95 per cent of those are small- and medium-sized enterprises.

“They just don’t have the necessary cashflow to keep going with no revenue for an extended period. The longer this goes on the less likely it is that we are going to see the same industry coming out of this as we went into it.

“We don’t know what it will look like, but I think it will be different.”

Mr Martin, whose state is arguably the most reliant on tourism, told The Australian he did not “even want to think about” interstate travel not reopening in spring.

“The thought of not having summer and this going on for longer than six months — that is just subjecting Tasmania in particular to an economic Armageddon of proportions I don’t think any of us want to consider,” he said.

Federal Tourism Minister Simon Birmingham said the government was not going to be able to “save every business and every job” in the sector. “We need to look at this as very much a staged approach in terms of what is likely to occur,” he said.

The closed reef fleet terminal and wharf at the Cairns Marlin Marina. Picture: Brendan Radke

Tasmanian Premier Peter Gutwein said the state would look to “sensibly and responsibly” remove restrictions but only in a way that would “keep people safe” and be “guided very, very strongly” by public health advice.

As revealed by The Australian, Tourism Australia plans to use the crisis to refocus its promotion of tourism from the international market to the domestic trade.

Industry expects intrastate travel restrictions to be eased before state border closures are lifted. International travel restrictions are likely to be maintained for the rest of the year, although the Morrison government is considering fast-tracking opening the border to New Zealand.

At least five Tourism and Transport Forum “recovery” groups have been set up in tourism, aviation, regional travel, culture and entertainment and business travel to form strategies for reopening, with submissions due in the next fortnight.

Guidelines would be dependent on an easing of restrictions over the next few months, starting with beaches and parks, and then restaurants, bars, galleries and hotels.

 TTF chief executive Margy ­Osmond said she expected a “staggered” resumption of travel that might begin with the possible reopening of state borders towards the end of June or July.

She said suggestions that international inbound flights could resume at the beginning of next year were “ambitious”, and the middle of next year was more likely.

 Flight Centre chief executive Graham Turner warned the government against revisiting social restrictions if there was a second wave of the pandemic.

ADDITIONAL REPORTING: BRAD NORINGTON