Call for action on China travel ban to save jobs
A LEADER of the Australian accommodation industry has warned thousands of Cairns jobs will be in jeopardy unless immediate and effective action is taken in response to the Chinese travel ban.
Tourism Accommodation Australia chief executive officer Michael Johnson was in Cairns yesterday to sit in on the Queensland Hotels Association’s meeting of general managers.
He described the situation as dire and at risk of spiralling further out of control without a concerted federal and state government response.
He said the Cairns hotel industry had operated at 50 per cent less in revenue per available room for the first two weeks of February compared with the same time last year. “That’s bad,” he said.
“That means, in a nutshell, you’re losing money.
“You are operating loss.”
The Sydney native returned home yesterday afternoon armed with first-hand knowledge at a of Far North Queensland’s state of play to use in negotiations with the state and federal governments.
“The concern is that in this first quarter of 2020, which is about halfway through, it’s estimated about $300 million will come out of the Cairns visitor economy,” he said.
“And there’s a high likelihood that 2000 jobs could be gone, not just out hotels, but the whole economy.”
Mr Johnson said the Federal Government’s Holiday Here This Year campaign was welcome support but it would need to quickly translate into an upswing in domestic tourism to Cairns if mass job cuts were to be avoided.
“I certainly believe Cairns has the opportunity to piggyback off that campaign to mitigate some of those losses. But we’re going to need that uptake to happen pretty quickly to start to turn around this situation,” he said.
He had not heard of any hotel closures in Cairns yet – unlike in China where major chains were shutting down every other day – but did not rule it out if the situation worsened over a prolonged period.
He also rejected Cairns Regional Council Mayor Bob Manning’s call for a tourism levy paid at the point of accommodation.
“It’s sadly being addressed because of the lack of support from the State Government,” he said.
Mr Johnson argued a levy on all commercial businesses would be fairer.
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