Source::Xinhuanet
SYDNEY,
With Australia-New Zealand quarantine-free travel bubble to start within weeks, a glimmer of hope in uncertainties was brought to Australia's struggling tourism sector.
As one of the worst-hit sectors during the COVID-19 pandemic, Australia's tourism gross domestic product (GDP) fell 18.9 percent to 49.6 billion Australian dollars (37.9 billion U.S. dollars) in the financial year from July 2019 to June 2020, the lowest level since the financial year 2013-2014. Tourism's contribution to the country's GDP fell from 3.1 percent to 2.5 percent.
"They were the first to be impacted by measures introduced by governments in response to COVID, and will be among the last to recover," Deloitte's Tourism and Hotel Market Outlook 2021 said. The biggest impact was the international travel restrictions. Statistics from the Australian Bureau of Statistics showed international arrivals in February 2021 witnessed an 18.5 percent decrease compared to the previous month and a 98.4 percent decrease compared to the corresponding month of the previous year, and only 8.5 percent of all arrivals were those arriving on temporary other visas.
"Our sector which relies almost entirely on international travel slammed to a shut in February last year. Nine out of 10 travel businesses have been surviving on a decline in revenue of 90 percent since then and most businesses have experienced at least a 70 percent decline," said Australian Federation of Travel Agents (AFTA) Chair Tom Manwaring.
As the Australian government decided to extend border lockdown for another three months to June, hope for revival was placed on the domestic travel market. "We need to get domestic spending primed and pumping again," said a spokesperson from the Australian Trade and Investment Commission. The spokesperson told Xinhua in a written interview that before COVID-19, domestic tourism made up approximately 77 percent or 107 billion Australian dollars (81.6 billion U.S. dollars) of tourism spend.
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