Far North Queensland loses $2.2 billion of visitor spending

Cairns Regional Council has advised that more than $2.2 billion of visitor spending in the region was lost last year as a result COVID-19 related travel restrictions.

A report to Council outlining Tourism Tropical North Queensland’s activities, presented last week, revealed that prior to the Coronavirus pandemic, the region recorded 2.9 million visitors spending $3.51 billion for the year ending March 2020.

Notably, domestic overnight visitor expenditure in Far North Queensland grew to a record high of $2.6 billion in the March in the year to March 2020.

However, the impact of COVID-related travel restrictions resulted in an estimated loss of $1.6 billion loss of domestic visitor expenditure, along with a further $650 million lost due to international border closures.

The domestic visitor market is expected to underpin the region’s recovery, with domestic visitor expenditure expected to account for 82% of all visitor expenditure in 2021 (up from 68% in 2019).

According to the Australian Tourism Export Council, while some tourism businesses across Australia have seen an increase in revenues from domestic visitors, many regional and remote tourism businesses and supply chain distributors with a dependency on international markets remain on a knife edge.

Australia has traditionally had around 200 Inbound tour operators (ITOs) of varying sizes which support tourism businesses to connect with around 50 international markets.

Australian Tourism Export Council (ATEC) Managing Director Peter Shelley notes that without them we are likely to see the decimation of the Australian inbound travel distribution ecosystem.

Shelley stated “ITOs have been the backbone of the export tourism industry, providing the conduit for millions of visitors coming to Australia each year.

“With the end of JobKeeper, international borders closed and no further support, 81% of ITO businesses will close and that will destroy Australia’s ability to quickly get back in the game once borders reopen.

“Thousands of Australian businesses rely on the economic activity delivered by international visitors and around half of those visitors have been delivered though international retail travel agents serviced by Australian based ITOs - we simply can't afford to lose their expertise, connections and experience.”

ATEC fears that country’s tourism industry is “at risk” without a replacement for the JobKeeper scheme - which is due to halt at the end of March.