The global reaction to the initial outbreak of the coronavirus
in Wuhan City, China in December 2019 has already had devastating
effects in Queensland, particularly on the tourism industry, with
the Queensland Premier recently estimating that the Cairns region
alone has lost $200 million in forward bookings, and Gold Coast
operators were expecting to lose $400 million.
Following on from the summer of deadly bushfires, the tourism
industry has been hit with a "double whammy" of woes with
this viral outbreak.
China is the largest source of tourists to Australia. Tourism
Research Australia's survey shows more than 1.3 million Chinese
visited Australia in 2019, with a total spend $12.3 billion. With
these figures in mind, the financial impact of government
intervention to prevent travel to and from China could be
catastrophic for our local tourism industry.
