Losing $319m every day

THE Australian economy is hemorrhaging more than $319 million a day in lost domestic and international tourism as a result of travel restrictions, a new study from the Business Council of Australia (BCA) suggests.

The BCA commissioned Ernst & Young to compile a report into the financial fallout of the shutdown in Australia, concluding that over the past seven months, $17 billion had been lost from the domestic travel sector, while a whopping $61 billion had been leaked from international travel.

BCA CEO Jennifer Westacott believes a unified approach to the way Aussies travel domestically is needed at the national level by Dec in order to stem the bleeding in the crippled sector.

“Our recovery will be stronger and faster if we can agree on a national timetable and transparent protocols for removing domestic travel restrictions,” she said.

“We are not asking for a free for all - we need a highly-targeted, careful and gradual reopening of the economy based on health advice with robust nationally consistent systems in place for departures and arrivals, quarantining, local containment, and digital tracking and tracing.

“Getting Australians flying again before Christmas would be a social and economic gift to the country, delivering an additional $3.3 billion,” Westacott added.

The BCA chief is also calling for the Federal Govt to begin mapping out a concrete plan for the resumption of int’l travel.

“Int’l aviation generates about $100b a year in export revenue and supports 515,000 jobs across the country...putting a nationally agreed plan in place for int’l travel will allow us to ramp up this critical sector once we get the green light,” she said.