Tourism sector warns thousands of jobs will be imminently lost if borders remain closed

Thousands of jobs in the tourism sector will be lost if domestic travel isn’t opened up over the next three weeks, according to the Australian Chamber of Tourism’s John Hart. Borders between some states have been lifted, with Queensland poised to make a decision over whether it will allow tourists to enter from July 10. However, the re-opening of Australia’s domestic sector has been jeopardised by a small surge of COVID-19 cases in Victoria. NZ Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern told reporters on Monday she is open to the idea of a Trans-Tasman travel bubble, but warned she will not jeopardize the health of New Zealanders. Mr Hart told Sky News despite the small risk, it is integral that governments allow the tourism sector to get back on its feet. “If you look at the ABS data that came out last week, 15 per cent of businesses in tourism said they won’t last another three weeks if we don’t start seeing a significant uptick in tourism,” she said. “That’s 150,000 jobs on the line if we don’t get back to tourism in that period. The National Cabinet needs to reinforce the road map that they’ve put out that said, in step three, which is July, that we will have all domestic tourism back up and running and it also says we will also have the bubble open with NZ.”