TTF MEDIA RELEASE

29th March 2020

SUBSIDY A LIFE SAVER FOR TOURISM JOBS

The Federal Government’s latest $130 billion economic package will provide a fortnightly wage subsidy of $1500 per person and will help to save the jobs of the thousands of Australians employed in tourism the Tourism and Transport Forum said today.

TTF Chief Executive Margy Osmond said the “job keeper” subsidy couldn’t have come soon enough for some of the nation’s largest employers who are an integral part of the tourism industry and employ tens of thousands of Australians.

“This very welcome package will help to save thousands more tourism employees from the unemployment queue and keep them in jobs so that when we come out the other side of this industry debilitating pandemic we will be ready to move swiftly to the recovery phase.

“Following a catastrophic start to 2020 with the bushfires that devastated many tourism dependant regions the coronavirus has really brought our industry to a standstill, haemorrhaging almost $9 billion every month that the global pandemic continues and forecasting job losses of well over 300,000

“The subsidy could go a long way to stemming the flow of those job losses and better position our resilient industry to come back bigger and better than ever. We look forward to finding our more detail about who will be eligible for the subsidy.

The announcement came following renewed calls from the tourism industry for a multi-billion dollar package to save the country’s massive visitor economy.

“We have been calling on Government to recognise the urgency of providing these large employers with sector-specific financial assistance and would welcome further initiatives being announced in the next round of stimulus.”

Media Contact:           Graeme Moses at gmoses@ttf.org.au or 0434 569 470