Recovery plan needs guts

INTREPID Travel’s newly installed Managing Director ANZ, Sarah Clark, wants to see the new Federal Government provide more details about its preelection commitment to spend $48 million to help the country’s travel and tourism sectors recover from the pandemic.

Speaking with TD this week, Clark said that while the financial pledge is crucial to the industry, the package now needs to be “padded out more” to see exactly how it will benefit travel.

“It’s going to be interesting to see what [the Government] says and how they execute on that $48 million commitment because it is spread across a lot of different areas, and there’s so much that needs to be done,” Clark observed.

Intrepid’s chief added that tackling staff shortages is perhaps the most pressing need presently facing travel and tourism.

“Without those staff, you’re not going to have those experiences or accommodations to actually offer, whether that’s domestic or filtering into international travellers as well,” she argued.

“Getting more people back into the tourism industry is really important because a lot of people did leave and so seeing if we can get some of those people back is key, but then there’s also that wider issue of just needing more people for the jobs that we have in Australia as well.

“That’s where you cross into the field of skilled migration and absolutely categorising some of those roles so that we can attract, as well as looking at Working Holiday visas to supplement the workforce,” Clark added.

While many people have left travel and tourism during the shutdown to pursue employment opportunities in other industries, Clark said there was still many things government can do to attract talent, including education incentives around TAFE courses.