Australian government says to support tourism industry as bushfires recede

MELBOURNE

The Australian government said on Jan. 19 it will provide financial aid to the country’s tourism sector that’s been badly hit by long-lasting bushfires, as business owners fretted about cancellations that stretch into the months ahead.

Although recent rains have brought some relief, damage to the industry from the fires has approached $1 billion Australian Dollars ($690 million) so far and may top $4.5 billion Australian Dollars by the end of the year, according to estimates from Australian tourism bodies.

“People have stopped coming,” said Tony Coppins, owner of Kangaroo Island Safari and Kangaroo Island Ocean Safari, adding that he had received cancelations for February and March.

“They think the whole island is on fire and it’s not, so we really need to send that message out that the island is still accessible.”

A fire earlier this month scorched more than 200,000 hectares on the island, located off the coast of South Australia, in blazes described as “hell on earth.”

The government said yesterday it would channel $76 million ($52 million) in what it described as an initial push to help the country’s $105 billion tourism industry, which accounts for more than 3 percent of annual economic output.

“International visitors are critical and especially critical in places like Kangaroo Island or tropical North Queensland and these are destinations that have relied upon a large part of their visitor market being international tourists and that’s why we got to recover those markets as quickly as we can,” said Tourism Minister Simon Birmingham.

Birmingham said bookings from key international markets to Australia were down by between 30 percent and 40 percent. Domestic bookings across the country were down nearly 70 percent, Australian media reported.

Rains have brought the number of fires burning across Australia’s east and south coast to under 100 for the first time in weeks, easing a disaster that has scorched an area roughly one-third the size of Germany.

Twenty-nine people have been killed in the fires while millions of animals are also estimated to have perished.