NSTworld: Shelley said the industry and government need to urgently get the message out that many key tourism destinations are largely unaffected by the fires.
The number of travellers booking visits to Australia has fallen 10-20 percent since the fires began in September and the slump will cost the economy an estimated AUS$4.5 billion this year, the Australian Tourism Export Council said.
Global media have given extensive coverage to the wildfires, which have killed at least 28 people, burned an area larger than Portugal and blanketed the key tourist cities of Sydney and Melbourne in toxic smoke. Shelley said the industry and government need to urgently get the message out that many key tourism destinations are largely unaffected by the fires.
Australia’s conservative government, which has come under intense criticism for its response to the fires and to the global warming which scientists say has been a major contributing factor to the crisis, has announced an AUS$2 billion “bushfire recovery plan.”
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