Adventure Tourism Victoria denounces partial lifting of lockdown

Adventure Tourism Victoria, a not-for-profit organisation representing the youth and adventure tourism market in Victoria, is calling on the Victorian Government to provide additional aid to affected tourism businesses, and to emerge from lockdown faster.

In a statement released today by Adventure Tourism Victoria (ATV), owner of walking tour business Depot Adventures, John O’Sullivan advises “the new 25km restriction eliminates the only customers we had left – Victorians.

“First we lost international guests, then interstate visitors. Now we’re being told we can reopen even though our customers can’t get to us.”

ATV calls on the state government to provide aid for tourism businesses that could not reopen because their customers could not travel to them.  

It’s not just tour operators — hospitality venues are condemning this partial reopening.

Pub owner Evan Mahony notes “we’ve already lost $160,000 in this latest lockdown, now with the reopening we are set to lose another $30,000.

“If I can reopen, I have to or else I’ll lose my staff, but with only 50 customers allowed in I’ll lose more money being open. It’s sad to say, but without JobKeeper I would be better off staying closed.”

ATV President Alex Hill adds “It was as good as it’s been for 15 months - there was a heap of momentum. The last three times we came out of lockdown, it’s taken four to six weeks minimum for guests to return to our member businesses. Now we have to start that process again.

ATV renews its call for a clear roadmap out of lockdown.

Hill highlights “the last time we had 25km/50 person capacity restriction was Springtime when we had dozens of new cases a day. Now we’re back to the same restrictions with just one new case.”

Business can’t plan for that. Tourists can’t plan for that. ATV calls for a change.

Adventure Tourism Victoria was established in 2018 and with more than 40 members made up of tour operators, accommodation providers, travel agents, booking platforms and attractions, ATV advocates for the prosperity of Victorian tourism businesses.

ATV works to provide support, training and networking opportunities for its members, but its current focus is on advocacy following the intense tourism challenges of 2020 – namely the Australian bushfires and the COVID-19 pandemic.