Shadow Minister for Trade and Tourism, Kevin Hogan, said Australia needed more air travel to boost the tourism sector\u2019s recovery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAustralian Bureau of Statistics figures today show tourism is still lagging other countries around the world who have returned to and exceeded pre-COVID levels,\u201d Mr Hogan said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Albanese Government\u2019s decision to reject an additional 28 Qatar Airways flights a week does the opposite of what\u2019s needed to support the $166 billion sector and speed up its post-COVID recovery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe government has stopped 700,000 additional seats from Europe and the Middle East each year \u2013 flights that would have significantly boosted our tourism industry,\u201d Mr Hogan said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe government claims it is in the national interest but why is it in the national interest when it means fewer people visiting Australia; why is it in the national interest to keep air fares high and why is it in the national interest to hurt our economy?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Today\u2019s figures also show the majority of international visitors come to visit family rather than as tourists. Forty-one per cent of visitors came to visit friends and family, compared with 30 per cent pre-COVID, and 36 per cent to holiday, compared with 45 per cent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cProfessor Rico Merkert, Chair in Transport and Supply Chain Management and Deputy Director of the Institute of Transport and Logistics Studies at the University of Sydney, today estimated the decision to block the additional Qatar flights would cost the Australian economy $1 billion per year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe need more flights and more tourists at the moment, not less.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Shadow Minister for Trade and Tourism, Kevin Hogan, said Australia needed more air travel to boost the tourism sector\u2019s recovery. \u201cAustralian Bureau of Statistics figures today show tourism is still lagging other countries around the world who have returned to and exceeded pre-COVID levels,\u201d Mr Hogan said. The Albanese Government\u2019s decision to reject an additional … Continue reading “We need more flights to speed up tourism recovery”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22836","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aussie"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22836","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22836"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22836\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22837,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22836\/revisions\/22837"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22836"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22836"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22836"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}