• Two thirds of Australians aren’t planning on travelling over Easter, according to a recent survey, highlighting pervasive uncertainty over travel.
• Flagging consumer confidence around travel signals that fears of border closures are continuing to impact Australian’s travel plans, CEO of the Tourism and Transport Forum told the ABC.
• The insights come as the federal government’s half-price flights are released, part of a $1.2 billion tourism package that seeks to replace government support with travel spending.
• Visit Business Insider Australia’s homepage for more stories.

The launch of half-price flights today may not be enough to boost traveller’s confidence as almost two thirds of people say they won’t be travelling over Easter, according to a new survey.

And it remains to be seen if the 800,000 half-price airfares to destinations hit hard during the pandemic released for sale today will have the desired effect of boosting interstate travel.

Commissioned by the Tourism and Transport Forum (TTF), the survey asked Australians around the country about their travel plans in mid-March — before the most recent COVID-19 clusters were reported in Queensland.

It found that 63% of people said they wouldn’t be travelling over the Easter period, with 32% saying they didn’t have plans to travel anywhere over the next 12 months.

42% of respondents said uncertainty over state border restrictions had negatively affected their intention to travel over Easter.

TTF chief executive Margy Osmond told the ABC the data showed fears of border closures are continuing to impact Australian’s travel plans, despite the government’s $1.2 billion tourism package, which includes half-price flights set to run from April to July 2021.

“I think that this week has been a classic example, every single state has reacted just slightly differently, which is enough to confuse anybody,” Osmond said.

She said that in order to fully restore confidence the states and federal government need to agree on a uniform set of responses, along with acceleration of the vaccination process to end the threat of snap lockdowns.

With the end of the federal government’s $90 billion JobKeeper wage subsidy scheme cutting tourism, hospitality and aviation workers from a vital lifeline, it’s not yet clear whether the government’s $1.2 billion tourism injection will be enough to maintain momentum towards a full sector recovery.

On March 25, Virgin announced it would stand down 800 staff from 29 March to 18 April due to a “limitation on the availability of work caused by the COVID-19 pandemic,” according to a letter sent to staff.

The decision affected workers nationally and predated Brisbane’s snap lockdown this week.

And while Virgin said claims it stood down its ground crew in the wake of JobKeeper ending were “categorically false”, the move points to likely job losses and reductions in hours for those in fields connected to tourism following the removal of JobKeeper.

Half-price flights snapped up in promising sign for tourism

In a week that included a snap three-day lockdown and border closures to Queensland, along with a new reported coronavirus case in NSW’s Byron Bay, the release of 800,000 half-price airfares encouraging interstate travel comes at an awkward time.

However industry sources told News Corp that, while the Brisbane lockdowns had an impact, bookings were strong.

“We are still hoping for a strong Easter and April school holidays with flight numbers into the Gold Coast still climbing despite the Brisbane lockdown,” Destination Gold Coast CEO Patricia O’Callaghan said before the announcement the lockdown would be lifted today.

“We are confident that the Federal Government’s flights package program will be popular,” she said.

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