BETWEEN 60 and 100 per cent of forward tourism bookings were lost throughout the Murray region as a result of the Victorian border closure with New South Wales, an industry survey has revealed.
Conducted by Murray Regional Tourism, the survey of 13 local government areas along the length of the Murray River including Mildura found that revenue fell between 80 and 100 per cent for one in three tourism operators last month alone.
Seventy per cent of businesses reported a loss in cancellations in January of between 40 and 100 per cent and a quarter reported they had or were likely to make staff redundant as a result of the border closure.
The January 2021 Border Closures Impact on the Murray Region survey said the tourism industry had been among those hardest hit by the COVID-19 pandemic despite the Murray region entering the crisis with strong domestic overnight visitor growth.
“Since the introduction of border closures and travel restrictions in March 2020, the border tourism industry has been enduring exceptional challenges including the reduction of visitors,” the survey summary said.
“Managing the logistics of transporting goods and services and the movement of staff throughout the region have also been an additional burden that many Murray businesses have needed to navigate.
“Analysed data presented in this report, clearly demonstrated the financial burden that many businesses are enduring and the flow on effect to staff employment and mental health.”
Nationals leader Peter Walsh told State Parliament this week the border closure announced on New Year’s Eve created “absolute panic” from Genoa in East Gippsland to Mildura.
“You cannot operate businesses in your peak season, the cream for the year, when you are absolutely gutted because of the border closures through that particular thing,” Mr Walsh said.
“A lot of the service sector that services both sides of the river would not cross the river to actually do service call-outs because they could not justify an hour and a half sitting in the queue.
“People’s lives were totally destroyed by this particular thing.”
Mr Walsh said regional tourism along the border community was suffering because the brand had effectively been destroyed by the border closures.
“They need certainty and they need money to actually tell their prospective visitors that they are open for business and there will be certainty into the future,” he said.
“Most of the businesses you go and talk to end up bursting into tears.
“They are just so gutted by this particular decision and so gutted by the fact that a government that supposedly governs for everyone could be so callous that they could actually just do what they did on New Year’s Eve and leave these industries so exposed.”
