The Australian Tourist industry are currently lobbying their Government to fight the effects of the economic crisis by paying Australians up to £777 million to holiday at home instead of heading overseas to enjoy their vacation time.
Research from the Australian Bureau of Statistics has shown that visitor numbers to the country have dropped significantly since 2007, thanks to the ongoing credit crunch.
Australians are being urged to holiday at home, in an attempt to reinvigorate the tourist industry
In a cunning attempt to counter this deficit, the Australian Tourist Board has started to look at ways to encourage locals to holiday at home and make up for the anticipated loss of revenue – last year saw the number of holidaymakers from Japan and China drop by 20 per cent.
The campaign, entitled ‘No Leave, No Life,’ aims to encourage Australia’s 11 million workers to utilise the millions of days of paid leave they’ve accumulated, said to be worth around £13.6 billion, and use it to travel to domestic locations.
Australian Tourism Export Council Managing Director Matthew Hingerty said, “Australians should be given tax incentives to take their holiday leave.
“We have 121 million days of leave stored up.
“One of the ideas is to have an £18-a-day tax rebate for people who take their leave, or allow people to salary sacrifice a holiday package within their own country.
“That will help us trade our way out of our problems. We don’t need a handout. We need some clever Government policies to innovate into new markets and to innovate with some new programs to get people to go on holidays in their own country,” he added.
Only last week Last week, Tourism Australia’s independent forecasting committee predicted that 2009 would see the biggest drop in overseas visitors since the pilots’ strike 20 years earlier.
“The figures are far worse than expected. This year’s predicted slump in inbound tourism will see 200,000 fewer international tourists, costing £457 million in foreign income,” said Mr Hingerty.
A proposed stimulus package is currently in the pipeline between the National Tourism Alliance and the Office of Federal Tourism Minister Martin Ferguson, which could stretch to £777 million.
Forget Europe, Australia is the place to be!
Aussie workers have been encouraged to use their holiday allowance in an ad campaign launched by the Australian Government intended to support the country’s tourism and leisure industry. Currently many Australians don’t take their holiday entitlement due to pressures at work.
Australia’s Government hopes the campaign will breathe life into its tourism and hospitality industries.
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