Predictions of when international flights may resume/bans lifted

[oznflfan]

Yup...I happen to find myself between jobs in June with a week break. Being in Melbourne obvs I look north in June!

Flights are OK and not outrageous but the availability and price of accommodation (and the standard of remaining accomm in some places) is fairly horrendous. And then there's car hire which is generally running at about $200/day in Cairns & Darwin. I checked in on Broome and the Cable Beach resort has a pop-up saying its fully booked until October!

I also found that I could get myself to Darwin and compromise on hotel there was literally no tours available to book out to the national parks...looking for a 3 day option, not a day trip. I understand there are also all kinds of labour shortages, particularly affecting the tropical locations. In the end I'm going to FNQ...the resort I am staying at in Port Douglas is only operating the restaurant 5 days a week due to 'severe labour shortages'. I'm told this is also a problem at the venues in town...presumably this is due to zero working holidaymakers left in the country.

Anyway, a bit of a digression...maybe the masses will get more upset by the impact on domestic holiday prices!

Same where I live. All 'holiday' locations tourism/restaurant/accommodation use good majority of junior and casual staff as oversea's backpackers and short term tourists. Shortage of cleaners, cooks, reception staff, waitresses, you name it. Some bigger hotels can't even open half their rooms.

 

[louie-m]

Each week I walk through the centre of Surfers Paradise - Surfers Paradise Blvd - on the Gold Coast.

Last week I counted the numbers of shops/cafes open.

I walked directly past 107 business premises. 52 of them were either closed or empty, many of them with "For Lease" signs up. So that's almost half of those businesses in one major tourist precinct gone, almost all of them never to return.

(It looked like only about 5 of them were just closed for the duration of Covid and were hoping to return - stock and fittings still in place.)

We've been here recently too - Cairns however is way worse off. A really sad place at the moment.

 

[Bigskytraveller]

Having been through both downtown Cairns and SP in the last 5 years I have to say the businesses in Cairns and SP had headed down the path of being pretty horrible and relying on international trade of people who had been dumped there on tours, backpackers, others who weren’t able to be discriminating etc.

Despite the rhetoric from our tourism industry about Australia being a “premium” destination a lot of our tourism businesses has become tacky over priced clip joints offered sub-standard products and service. Cleanliness, attitude and quality were often low on the list of many tourist locations.

What had happened to my thinking was most of my more discerning Australian friends and colleagues were going to the USA, Asia, Europe etc and commenting on the better experiences they had re tourism there.

I think this is maybe an opportunity for Australia to become reacquainted with what it’s tourism offerings actually are and maybe to kill off the dead wood.

SP for example really needs a complete change of direction.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

But it already is and it’s accepted and there isn’t an uproar so why on earth would that change suddenly.

Accepted by whom? Government maybe, but I don't know if that support is shared by the general public. The government keeping telling us that all of us getting vaccinated will help allow business people to travel seems to provide little incentive to the rest of us.

 

[Bigskytraveller]

Accepted by whom? Government maybe, but I don't know if that support is shared by the general public. The government keeping telling us that all of us getting vaccinated will help allow business people to travel seems to provide little incentive to the rest of us.

Also all surveys say that business are the least keen to start travel again. Any travel will be minimal compared to 2019 levels, I used to jump on a plane for work meetings in region (EMEA) with no approvals needed and out of region approvals taking 5 minutes. Now the equivalent would require a paper trail a mile long, risk assessments, health screening etc.

The first people to travel will be people seeing family members and a small group of financially secure, younger/ adventurous recreational travellers. That’s evidenced in all surveys / genuine analysis.

The govt is therefore gaslighting us if they are saying that business is a travel driver / need.

 

[drron]

Accepted by whom? Government maybe, but I don't know if that support is shared by the general public. The government keeping telling us that all of us getting vaccinated will help allow business people to travel seems to provide little incentive to the rest of us.

Go to WA and ask everyone about their Premier.80% tell you he saved them from Covid.
News held a poll after the border will close indefinitely article in the press. 80% agreed with the border being closed.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Also all surveys say that business are the least keen to start travel again. Any travel will be minimal compared to 2019 levels, I used to jump on a plane for work meetings in region (EMEA) with no approvals needed and out of region approvals taking 5 minutes. Now the equivalent would require a paper trail a mile long, risk assessments, health screening etc.

The first people to travel will be people seeing family members and a small group of financially secure, younger/ adventurous recreational travellers. That’s evidenced in all surveys / genuine analysis.

The govt is therefore gaslighting us if they are saying that business is a travel driver / need.

Yes, I read the report which suggests that business demand might be quite low. But that's a separate issue from what the government is promoting. They are/were saying that once we are all vaccinated we *might* look to reopen borders, in a slow and measured way, starting with business people. Well... that's not much of an incentive for 99% of the population is it? If the message was we can start to open up slowly by letting all front line workers - our nurses, paramedics, aged care workers, teachers - go on holiday, that could be a far bigger incentive.

 

[Seat0B]

Vaccinated Australians may be able to go overseas with home quarantine

So the Federal Government is again putting forward the idea

Its like they are testing the waters to see what reaction they get for the different angles and then will decide which angle will make them the most popular

Post automatically merged: May 13, 2021

Plan to welcome students back to Australia 'underway'

And here come the international students

My goodness what a see-saw. Talk about mixed messages and lack of clarity. It makes me really angry with them. They should just get some common sense and tell the truth.

 

[roogirl]

My goodness what a see-saw. Talk about mixed messages and lack of clarity. It makes me really angry with them. They should just get some common sense and tell the truth.

They’re doing the thing that always enrages me about Boris which is policy by floating ideas in newspapers. The cycle of hope/no hope/glimmer of hope/hope dashed again is more exhausting than if they just came out with a very negative borders closed message and we could then all start to emotionally adjust and move on.

 

[Seat0B]

They’re doing the thing that always enrages me about Boris which is policy by floating ideas in newspapers. The cycle of hope/no hope/glimmer of hope/hope dashed again is more exhausting than if they just came out with a very negative borders closed message and we could then all start to emotionally adjust and move on.

Exactly, it's the lack of certainty and ability to plan anything for the future that is making me feel so angry, frustrated, depressed, despondent etc etc. It is a play straight out of the torture handbooks to act this way.

 

[dajop]

If the message was we can start to open up slowly by letting all front line workers - our nurses, paramedics, aged care workers, teachers - go on holiday,

You've mentioned that multiple times. Beside the fact that anyone can already go on holiday already - just within Australia or NZ (you don't need to travel overseas to go on holiday) , they are not the right group for any sort of opening up that still requires quarantine - whether home or hotel (except teachers, in the long summer break, but not the rest). Why? 2 weeks leave just to sit in quarantine does not make sense unless they've got loads of leave they want to waste - for the group you're talking about they cannot just plug in their laptop in their hotel room and work.

Maybe a good group to target for the initial quarantine free travel .. but where do you draw the line, it took an army of people to keep the country going during last years lockdowns - farmers, truck drivers, HQ staff, supermarket staff, police, security, etc

 

[dajop]

NZ is still overseas last time I looked.

Indeed!

 

[MEL_Traveller]

You've mentioned that multiple times. Beside the fact that anyone can already go on holiday already - just within Australia or NZ (you don't need to travel overseas to go on holiday) , they are not the right group for any sort of opening up that still requires quarantine - whether home or hotel (except teachers, in the long summer break, but not the rest). Why? 2 weeks leave just to sit in quarantine does not make sense unless they've got loads of leave they want to waste - for the group you're talking about they cannot just plug in their laptop in their hotel room and work.

Maybe a good group to target for the initial quarantine free travel .. but where do you draw the line, it took an army of people to keep the country going during last years lockdowns - farmers, truck drivers, HQ staff, supermarket staff, police, security, etc

I think it should be up to them to decide whether, how and where they want to holiday. Lots of people have lots of leave stored up. And if it can be at home, that can be part of the holiday.

Yes there's lots of places to go in Australia, but the prices are rarely competitive.

Even if they said family reunions were priority, that would be a far bigger incentive than business people, IMO.

 

[dajop]

This matches what I've seen, accommodation I looked at that I had booked last year has gone up 35% in price.

Actually I miscalculated, it's 57% this Feb-Jun. But we only put prices up about 15%, the rest of the increase is made of up of more bookings (particularly May and June) and people staying for 3 nights rather than 2 (outside of summer, we typically only ever get weekend bookings). But lots of people in Victoria seem to be reluctant to even travel interstate, understandably. And with this comes local returns, more use of cleaner, laundry and gardener and even lots more takeaway coffee cups in the bin (we've been told)!

 

[dajop]

Yes there's lots of places to go in Australia, but the prices are rarely competitive.

Even if they said family reunions were priority, that would be a far bigger incentive than business people, IMO.

I think the reunion piece is far more important and far more likely to help build support for slight opening of borders.

The argument will alway be people can holiday it home. There is absolute no need to holiday overseas. My parents didn't travel overseas (aside from NZ) until they were in their 60s (when I moved to Singapore). Out of my aunts and uncles on one side of the family (8 of them), only 1 has travelled overseas (aside from NZ). Growing up we did not need overseas holidays, camping and caravaning was all we had ... even now my siblings are just happy with local camping type holidays (although I know one was looking forward to bringing their kids across to holiday with me here ... but without accommodation cost its a cheap holiday anyway).

Outside of AFF , overseas holidays are still considered a luxury by great swathes of society (except perhaps Bali!). But just about everyone can relate to wanting to see loved ones.

 

[oznflfan]

Go to WA and ask everyone about their Premier.80% tell you he saved them from Covid.
News held a poll after the border will close indefinitely article in the press. 80% agreed with the border being closed.

Yet on perthnow.com.au it's bolded front page news, any news, about borders potentially opening! Opening in a positive way for travel, not negative.

 

[ethernet]

Retired people can burn 2 weeks no problem. No, I cant holiday locally if prices are up 45% odd, and unable to go the the best booked out spots, of which there are many. It would change If I had a caravan (also on waitlists). I will save my pennies for Paris. Good point about our fully vaccinated front line workers facing pure economic status/worth discrimination/judgement. The risks are the same. I forget the modern UK buzzword for what Morrison is doing, not heresthetics, but it still amounts to a bigoted sh*tsandwich
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Hopefully 'Resentment' will be seen at the marginal ballot boxes by SJW's.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

I think the reunion piece is far more important and far more likely to help build support for slight opening of borders.

The argument will alway be people can holiday it home. There is absolute no need to holiday overseas. My parents didn't travel overseas (aside from NZ) until they were in their 60s (when I moved to Singapore). Out of my aunts and uncles on one side of the family (8 of them), only 1 has travelled overseas (aside from NZ). Growing up we did not need overseas holidays, camping and caravaning was all we had ... even now my siblings are just happy with local camping type holidays (although I know one was looking forward to bringing their kids across to holiday with me here ... but without accommodation cost its a cheap holiday anyway).

Outside of AFF , overseas holidays are still considered a luxury by great swathes of society (except perhaps Bali!). But just about everyone can relate to wanting to see loved ones.

I think LCCs changed the holiday approach. It's cheaper to fly to Bali or coughet than Perth, NT or FNQ. Accommodation costs the same for a week in Bali as it does for a day in Australia. Food and drink prices overseas are actually affordable, and so is the kids' club to give parents some me time to relax. A big part of a relaxing holiday is not having to worry about how much everything is costing.

Camping holiday? Who still has to do the shopping and cooking? And the washing up? in Bali you just eat out.

 

[Seat0B]

Even if they said family reunions were priority, that would be a far bigger incentive than business people, IMO.

If they said that, then I would be doing whatever it takes. In a trice.

 

[dajop]

I think LCCs changed the holiday approach. It's cheaper to fly to Bali or coughet than Perth, NT or FNQ. Accommodation costs the same for a week in Bali as it does for a day in Australia. Food and drink prices overseas are actually affordable, and so is the kids' club to give parents some me time to relax. A big part of a relaxing holiday is not having to worry about how much everything is costing.

Camping holiday? Who still has to do the shopping and cooking? And the washing up? in Bali you just eat out.

AFF is a real echo chamber, and gives a perhaps warped, and arguably "elite" view of the world. In the context of opening up the country, 50% or more probably don't give a damn about "elites" taking their overseas holidays . Even to Bali or coughet. But may be persuaded by carefully constructed stories around not seeing loved ones for 18months though.

And FWIW, whilst it's cheaper to fly to Bali than it ever was, the people I'm talking about do not fly there, and would not fly to Perth, NT or FNQ for holidays either. They take their holidays at home even, going for a night away, or drives etc. This is what they can (or choose to) afford. Take a family of 6 to Bali, even with Jetstar type fairs is still not that cheap for some.