Shattered Tropical North Queensland goes from 55,000 to 5000 visitors a day
The stats confirm what Accom insiders struggling to survive have been telling us for months.
Bushfires and Coronavirus have crushed Australia’s domestic tourism, according to the latest monthly snapshot from Tourism Research Australia, Austrade.
This week, Accom News heard from Tourism Tropical North Queensland Chief Executive Officer Mark Olsen who told us that COVID-19 had cost the region more than $1 billion in visitor expenditure and that figure could be as high as $2.2 billion by December.
“Tourism generated $3.5 billion into the regional economy in the 12 months before borders closed with 55,000 visitors a day compared to the 5000 we have now,” he said.
TTNQ led the charge to lobby State and Federal politicians for assistance, including asking for a wage subsidy which resulted in JobKeeper, one of the many lifelines enabling businesses to continue trading.
“Tropical North Queensland is has the greatest number of businesses on JobKeeper of any region in Australia and 70 per cent of the region’s businesses are still closed.
“We are grateful the Federal Government will continue JobKeeper beyond September and would like to see an extension of other relief measures by the State Government.
“Businesses need the Queensland Government’s Business Support Program extended to June 2021.
“This includes permit and application fee waivers, port and passenger charge waivers, payroll and land tax reductions and rental assistance.
“We also ask for a full fee waiver on commercial vehicle and vessel registration until June 2021 for businesses on JobKeeper, additional loans for businesses in tourism dependent communities and for funds in the Industry Support Package to be quarantined for significant employers in tourism and tourism dependent communities.
“This support will ensure our destination retains the visitor experiences that have made the Cairns and Great Barrier Reef region Australia’s most desirable nature-based coastal and aquatic destination.
“The Cairns and Great Barrier Reef region has what the world wants once travel resumes – space, warmth and an environment that makes us Sir David Attenborough’s favourite place on Earth.
“TTNQ is working hard to ensure we take advantage of this so we can grow market share in the post-COVID world.
“The See Great, Leave Greater marketing campaign was reshaped to suit the rapidly changing domestic marketplace with the enviable result of Cairns now the number one region in Australia for Google travel searches.”
Austrade’s National Visitor (NVS) Survey monthly snapshot April – May 2020 shows…
April the overnight spend was down 91 percent on April 2019 and May down 82 percent on May 2019. Overnight Trips in April were down 86 percent on April 2019 and down 67 percent on May 2019
Its key findings are below:
Overnight spend
- Domestic travel started to feel the effects of COVID-19 in March 2020. Overnight spend fell by 41% or $2.6 billion for the month.
- April saw domestic overnight spend plummet to just $666 million. This was 91% or $7 billion less than in April 2019.
- Easing of lockdown measures saw May improve slightly. However, overnight spend fell 82% to $1.1 billion. This was a loss of $4.8 billion compared with May 2019.
Overnight trips
- Domestic overnight tourism losses reached around $13.7 billion (41%) between January and the end of May. This was due to the impacts of the summer bushfires and COVID-19.
- The bushfires resulted in domestic overnight visitor numbers falling 6% in January and 7% in February.
- COVID-19 began to impact domestic travel in March when trips fell 39%.
- The Easter and school holiday period is usually a busy time. The full impact of COVID-19 and travel restrictions meant Australians took just 1.6 million overnight trips in April. This was 86% or 9.6 million fewer trips than in April 2019.
- Easing lockdown measures saw May show some improvement. However, overnight trips still fell 67% to 3.1 million compared with May 2019.”
Mandy has over 17 years of accommodation and tourism industry writing experience and is Editor of AccomNews & Resort News, Publisher of SchoolNews & Director of Multimedia Pty Ltd. She is a retired registered nurse with a 25-year NHS career that followed a few unforgettable years in hotel housekeeping.
