Fed: Govt must address looming SARS tourism crisis: Labor
CANBERRA, April 24 AAP - The federal government had provided little more than tokenresponse to the economic impact of the SARS virus when Australian tourism faced a crisis,Labor said today.
Opposition tourism spokesman Gavan O'Connor said the impact of the SARS outbreak onAustralia's tourism industry was growing every day.
"Some sections of the industry, especially those involved in bringing in tourists fromAsia, are reporting a downturn in bookings of up to 90 per cent," Mr O'Connor said ina statement.
"The very lucrative international meetings and conference sector is reporting that40 per cent of operators have had cancellations.
"The $17 billion inbound tourism industry is in a state of crisis and the impact islikely to spread to other sections of the economy.
"The Howard government has provided little more than a token response to addressingthe economic impact of this crisis, especially on the tourism industry."
Mr O'Connor said that, as a first step, Tourism Minister Joe Hockey should convenean urgent meeting of the Tourism Ministers Council early next week to update the NationalTourism Crisis Plan.
This would ensure the plan provided an adequate framework for tackling the SARS crisisin a coordinated way.
In addition, the government should remove the Ansett ticket tax, rule out increasesin the passenger movement charge, adopt measure to pump prime visitor numbers and helptourism businesses through the worst stages.
AAP dep/jg/cjh/
KEYWORD: SARS AUST LABOR
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