Concern as wage subsidy departs

TOURISM leaders have warned whatever takes the place of JobKeeper when the axe falls next month may not be enough to prop up struggling tourism businesses.

It has been suggested tax breaks could form part of a support package however the federal government has remained tight lipped about exactly what will be rolled out after March 28.

Tourism Tropical North Queensland chief executive Mark Olsen said cost reductions such as tax relief would be useful.

“But I’m not sure if that is going to close the gap (based) on the revenue we are losing,” he said.

“It’s a really difficult one for a region like ours, you grow business slowly and you can lose traction really easily, you t take the stairs up and the eleva ator down.”

Modelling by the Internat tional Air Transport Associa ation predicts it won’t be until 2 2025 until Cairns welcomes p pre-COVID arrival numbers.

“It’s quite obvious for Aust tralia it could be a really slow r recovery,” he said.

“There needs to be some k kind of targeted support to keep people connected to business.

“(But) for us there is no real replacement for a wage subsidy.”

Quicksilver Group managing director Tony Baker after making the tough call to slash jobs earlier this month was optimistic more positions would not go when JobKeeper ends.

“It will impact everyone, there is a few thousand people still receiving JobKeeper,” he said.

“We are certainly hopeful that we have done what we need to do and are hopeful we won’t need to make further changes (to staffing).

“But having said that the period from the end of the Easter school holidays to the start of the July school holidays is usually a very quiet time for the domestic market.”

The Quicksilver boss said there had been discussions about continuing wage support but border certainty and marketing the Far North to southern holiday-makers was a way to keep the cash registers ticking over in the absence of the subsidy.

“We are hopeful that we have a bigger Easter period and that confidence will improve for people to take holidays,” he said.