TTF Media Release
4 September 2020
TOURISM INDUSTRY WELCOMES PLAN TO OPEN BORDERS BY CHRISTMAS
The peak body for Australia’s tourism and transport industries has welcomed today’s majority commitment by members of National Cabinet to replace hard borders by Christmas with a nationally consistent hotspot model to manage and contain COVID-19.
Tourism & Transport Forum CEO Margy Osmond said while it was disappointing that Western Australia had elected not to join the other states and territories in endorsing this commitment she said the tourism industry is delighted that progress has been made on a path forward to reopen the nation in time for the critical summer school holiday period.
“Our industry remains on its knees in the fight of its life and has each month been losing thousands of jobs and $6 billion in activity from the forced shutdown of domestic travel alone,” Margy Osmond said.
“The rapid and piecemeal implementation of complex and inconsistent domestic border has been stifling our industry’s ability to recover and we are pleased that almost every State and Territory has adopted this new framework to provide some real hope for our sector’s future.
“The tourism industry now calls on each of the committed States and Territories to rapidly progress an agreed national definition of a hotspot using the Commonwealth’s own definition as the logical starting point.
“Ongoing border closures particularly between states and territories with very low cases is crippling the tourism industry and must be replaced by this practical new COVID-19 management system as soon as possible and we will support the dedicated National Coordinating Mechanism to progress this goal.
“Today’s commitment from the vast bulk of jurisdictions is supported by new survey results from TTF member Newgate Research which reveals that a majority of 56 per cent of Australians want domestic borders open for travel within the next three months.
“And the additional commitment by the Australian and New Zealand Prime Ministers to use the hotspot model to progress the Trans-Tasman Bubble with the aim of welcoming New Zealand tourists by Christmas is also a real breath of fresh air.
“TTF welcomes the National Cabinet’s commitment today to support our resilient and job creating tourism industry to begin to rebuild and contribute to the wider national economic recovery.”
Ends.
Contact: TTF Manager Policy and Government Relations Lindsay Hermes lhermes@ttf.org.au 0418 948 447