AYERS ROCK, AUSTRALIA – APRIL 22: Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge and Prince William, Duke of … [+] Cambridge pose in front of Uluru, also known as Ayers Rock, on April 22, 2014 in Ayers Rock, Australia. The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are on a three-week tour of Australia and New Zealand, the first official overseas trip with their son, Prince George of Cambridge. (Photo by Phil Noble – WPA Pool/Getty Images)
An Australia market was held in Los Angeles last month. His mission was simple; to promote US trade and tourism after two years of COVID-19.
Australia has a ways to go to get back to its 2019 numbers, when one million American and Canadian travelers visited, spending $3 billion. Demand is currently estimated at around 65% of 2019 travel.
Travel from outside Australia was closed for almost two years, several planes from Qantas and other carriers are still grounded and Australia is dealing with a shortage of tourism workers.
However, Australia has a major advantage besides the beauty of the country. Unlike certain international and American destinations, Australia really wants tourists to come back and is investing in its tourism industry.
We speak to Donald Edward Farrell, Minister for Trade and Tourism. He was frank about the problems facing the country as a destination. “My job is to increase the number of flights. We have a low supply of aircraft. There are still three or four [Qantas] planes still sitting in the Mojave Desert.”
Donald Edward Farrell, Australian Minister for Trade and Tourism
“We want more Americans to come back. We have a very close relationship,” he added. “But during the COVID period people stopped traveling. So now there’s a lot of unmet demand; travel to Australia is something that a lot of Americans would like to do.”
One of the most popular trips is what the Australians call “Sydney-rock-reef”. These trips can start in the bustling city of Sydney. Uluru or Ayers Rock, the largest monolith in the world, is known for its fascinating paintings and carvings. “Reef” refers, of course, to exploring the Great Barrier Reef.
To give you an idea of the distances involved, Sydney to Uluru is a 5 1/2 hour flight or 30 hour drive of almost 1800 miles. Similarly, getting from Sydney to the land side of the Great Barrier Reef is 1250 miles.
We did a quick search to find a cheap flight to Sydney from LAX. The lowest price we could find for a round-trip economy ticket from October 31 to November 11, round trip, was $1,969. As Farrell said, “We had a roundtable with the aviation industry – we want more seats!”
But the flights are coming. According to Chris Allison, Vice President of Tourism for the Americas, “Airlift is recovering strongly. Our data shows that US air capacity will return to 79% of 2019 levels by the end of 2023. Airlines continue to expand in Australia. And as capacity continues to increase, airfares will continue to normalize.”
On October 28, Allison said United will launch new services from San Francisco to Brisbane, in addition to relaunching services from Houston to Sydney and Los Angeles to Melbourne. In December, Qantas will launch new services from Dallas to Melbourne. And for those who really like to see Oceania (or spend quality time on a plane), Qantas will launch services from New York to Sydney via Auckland next June.
Qantas also promises the arrival of Project Sunrise, non-stop flights from New York and London to Melbourne and Sydney, by 2025. A fleet of twelve Airbus A350-1000s will make the 19-hour “jump”, with just 238 seats. plenty of room to stretch out. (Plus, there’s plenty of room for extra jet fuel.)
HONG KONG, CHINA – 03/08/2020: A Qantas Aribus A350 aircraft lands at Hong Kong International Airport … [+]. Airlines around the world have canceled flights, postponed or adjusted their services in response to the coronavirus outbreak. (Photo by May James/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
There are other challenges for Australian tourism in reaching Americans. Several years ago, Qantas ran a promotion where the airline would pay for a US passport for passengers who purchased airline tickets. The long-standing agreement highlighted a reality; as of 2021, only 37% of US adults report having a valid, unexpired US passport. But, as Farrell said, “Even at 40% that’s a lot of Americans with passports.”
Even better news for Australia is that two-thirds of Americans (64%) with household incomes above $100,000 hold a valid US passport. For many, Australia is a bucket list destination. And GenZ backpackers with more money than time are also good candidates for travel to Australia, with 58% of university graduates holding passports.
Farrell focused more on hospitality staff, a theme known around the world. “We hope to deal with the labor shortage; we have staff shortage issues.” Farrell, who started working in the hospitality industry in Australia’s Northern Territories in the 1970s, added: “In the long term we want to train young Australians to work in the tourism industry”.
Australia was closed to Americans during the pandemic. Another major group, the Chinese travelers, have not yet returned. But the hospitality industry focused on domestic travel, as the United States did. Although there is still a shortage of workers, many new hotels and restaurants were launched across Australia.
This image taken on March 7, 2022 shows the current state of coral on the Great Barrier Reef, … [+] off the coast of the Australian state of Queensland. – The Great Barrier Reef has returned to “general” bleaching, authorities said on March 18, 2022, as warmer-than-average ocean temperatures northeast of Australia threaten the site of the World Heritage which is already in difficulties. (Photo by Glenn NICHOLLS / AFP) / Erroneous mentions appearing in the metadata of this photo by Glenn NICHOLLS have been amended in the AFP systems as follows: [title information, as well as the date: Great Barrier Reef ] of [Cairns]. Please immediately remove the misrepresentations from all of your online services and delete them from your servers. If you have been authorized by the AFP to distribute them to third parties, please ensure that they do the same. Failure to promptly comply with these instructions will result in your liability for any continued use or use subsequent to notification. Therefore, we greatly appreciate your attention and prompt action. We regret the inconvenience this notification may cause and remain at your disposal for any additional information you may need. (Photo by GLENN NICHOLLS/AFP via Getty Images)
But after the layoffs and furloughs that hit the hospitality industry around the world during COVID, “We have to get people to come back,” Farrell said. “We need to train more Australians; we thought backpackers and foreign students would help.”
We asked about the travel industry’s reputation for hard work and relatively low pay. Farrell said the salary in Australia is higher than in the US. The problem was more, “the unreliability of work, the permits and the dismissals. Every time there was a lockdown, you lost your job. People wanted to do something more reliable.”
But Australia sees tourism as part of the solution, with significant career possibilities. To get there, the focus is on investing in skills training and allowing more immigrants with the necessary skills to arrive.
“We think we’ll have our hospitality workers back in October,” Farrell said. “We encourage Americans to come. For young Americans you can get a work visa – my daughter has a work visa in New York.
In Australia, at least, he says, “Travel and tourism is an aspirational industry.”
Tourists in Sydney, Australia looking towards the world famous Opera House.
