Australia opens its international borders but tourists remain wary

With today seeing Australia open up its international borders, the latest Industry Pulse survey from the Australian Tourism Export Council reveals international in-market sellers of Australian travel are reporting significant concern from consumers lacking confidence to book their travel to Australia.

ATEC Managing Director Peter Shelley notes “while the Government has invested in global advertising to drive demand to return to Australia, there are worrying signs consumers are wary of travelling here with confusion over our various state travel restrictions and concern about snap border closures. 

“Australia is a long-haul, aspirational destination and people are concerned by what they have heard in the media about confusing state entry requirements and isolation protocols should they get covid while here." 

Shelley advised “this is an important day for our industry and the first, but most important step in getting Australian tourism back on its feet,” adding “while the industry has endured a huge hit, the next 12 months will be the hardest for tourism owners as they work to rebuild once profitable businesses, having shed staff and depleted working capital and in many cases taken out loans to survive the last two years.

Other data from ATEC’s Industry Pulse reveals: 

• Confusion around varying state border requirements is creating booking hesitation 

• Businesses don’t expect to see a significant flow of international visitors before October 2022

• Top recovery markets are expected to be UK, Western Europe, the US and Singapore

• Tourism supplier businesses are operating, on average, at 50% or less capacity compared to 2019 

• Inbound Tour Operators are, on average, are operating at 30% or less capacity compared to 2019.

Shelley highlights “while the industry is looking forward to welcoming back international visitors and rebuilding our tourism brand, there is a huge and complex runway to navigate and we need a multitude of factors to line up including access to skilled staff, a consistent approach to covid protocols and ease of movement between states, along with international tourism trade educational programs and targeted advertising campaigns.

“Our financially fragile tourism export sector is now starting to cautiously emerge from the greatest challenge every faced, having lost hundreds of quality business and thousands of valuable staff.

“Right now, as we welcome back visitors it will be critical that both state and federal governments present a clear message to the global travel community that Australia is once again reopening its borders to the world and remain the welcoming, high-quality destination we are famous for.

“We cannot afford to allow inconsistent regulations around the management of COVID to create confusion and erode the confidence of intending travellers. 

“Now more than ever we need united government leadership to remove obstacles impeding the recovery of our $45 billion tourism export sector.”International_tourism_plane_in_sky