Newsflash – Tourism Industry Council of Tasmania, 20 August 2021
Border Restrictions and Priorities for Industry Support
As has been widely reported over the past 24 hours, TICT announced to the Tasmanian Tourism Conference in Launceston yesterday, our position on the ongoing border restrictions to Tasmania.
The TICT Board met on Wednesday and adopted the following policy principles:
- We encourage all Tasmanian tourism operators and their staff to get vaccinated as soon as possible. Protecting ourselves and our loved ones, while boosting the State’s vaccination rate, is the most practical thing we can all do right now.
- It is critically important to the Tasmanian tourism industry and visitor economy that businesses understand the vaccine rate threshold that will enable unrestricted travel for vaccinated Australians to Tasmania. The National Cabinet has set a threshold of 80% for this to happen. We need confidence this is the target to open our borders, once and for all.
- Once we have hit this target, TICT supports the principle of issuing Tas-E-Travel passes to only fully vaccinated Australians. Other visitors would be subject to possible travel restrictions, as they are now.
A Balanced Approach. For our Industry. For our Community.
In addressing the Tasmanian Tourism Conference yesterday, TICT Chair Daniel Leesong, explained the position:
“… Friends, while we welcome the support of government and our fellow Tasmanians, the fact is no matter how much government support is made available, no industry can operate indefinitely in such uncertain market conditions
The hard truth is some 18 months since borders first closed, we are today looking at the most uncertain conditions we’ve had yet – with COVID seemingly out of control in NSW, no absolute certainty of when borders might again open to our main markets in NSW and Victoria, and No JobKeeper to secure our workforce and provide an industry safety net.
The voucher program and the grants announced last week are timely and appropriate – but they are short-term measures.
We simply cannot go on for long like this, without it leading to severe consequences for many of us in this room – and the broader Tasmanian economy.
How realistically do you manage your staffing levels in this uncertainty?
Are we needing to urgently reduce our staffing levels, or do we need to try and hold on to them in expectations for a promising, busy summer?
How do you plan investment? Negotiate with banks, or creditors, or suppliers?
The fact is we need certainty as employers, and as an economy.
The national cabinet has set a clear target to end mass lockdown restrictions when we hit a 70 percent vaccination rate – and then a commitment to unrestricted travel for vaccinated Australians, when we hit 80 percent.
As an industry, we must expect this to mean an end to border restrictions as we know them now. Irrespective of the state of Covid in the larger states.
When we hit those targets as expected in October or November, we simply must find a more sustainable way to manage the COVID risk to Tasmania without the need to apply hard borders with the other states.
Keeping Tasmanians safe will always be our priority – but so to is securing Tasmanian livelihoods.
In this context, at our meeting yesterday, the TICT Board endorsed a position that we now propose to the Tasmanian Government;
Firstly we cannot urge strongly enough to our businesses and their staff, please get vaccinated.
We also stress to government the critical importance to businesses of certainty around the vaccination threshold to ensure unrestricted movement from mainland Australia to Tasmania.
And finally, and crucially – we support the principle of mandatory vaccines for the issuing of Tas E-Travel passes.
In effect, making vaccination mandatory to enter the State without the risk of quarantining or other restrictions, as there are now.
This would make us one of the first destinations in the world to have this system in place, but also show now that we as an industry want to strike a balance between certainty, and ensuring Tasmanians are protected as much as they can be in the new Covid norm.
It is a responsible position for us to take as an industry – and it increasingly looks to be the right position to take if we are to find a way out of our current circumstances…”
– Daniel Leesong, TICT Chair, 19 August 2021
In a busy board meeting, TICT also reaffirmed its priorities for industry assistance, should the ongoing uncertainty and border restrictions continue beyond September.
We will continue to prioritise these measures with state and federal governments:
- Further rounds of travel vouchers if the Victoria market remains compromised over the September holidays and into Spring.
- Further targeted grants to support cash flow for small to medium businesses, and Payroll Tax Relief for larger businesses, who can demonstrate a direct decline in revenue due to the current border restrictions.
- Continue to work with our national bodies in advocating for the Industry Support Lockdown Payments being made available to businesses in the lockdown States, to also be made available to businesses in Tasmania directly impacted by those lockdowns.
- Support emergency Fair Work Adjustments to enable businesses to undertake workforce planning, and maintain their staff arrangements, through the current disruption.
- Once Victoria opens, Tasmania must go hard in stimulating the pent up demand, with another round of the successful ‘Free Car Fares’ initiative with the Spirit of Tasmania, and other incentives to get visitors moving with confidence.
- Make readily available business and professional counselling services for operators considering transitioning from the industry.
