Businesses in Cairns and Townsville are concerned unemployment could reach 30 per cent as the areas grapple with the prospect of international flights being grounded indefinitely. Sky News Political Editor Andrew Clennell said popular tourist areas are now “absolute ghost towns.” “Businesses up there are talking about 30 per cent unemployment and locals being forced to move south,” he said. “Townsville normally has 70 flights a week. Now they have four.
“Here is a document prepared by the Cairns regional council, which says that, so important is the international travel component to their business that after the GFC, it took eight years for international visitation to return to ‘pre GFC’ levels, eight years for economic growth in Cairns to return to the state level and 10 years for the unemployment rate in Cairns to fall to the state level and 12 years for the job to population ratio to return to the state level,” he said.
aclennell I feel for them, they have suffered both from international and state travellers
aclennell
aclennell This is where we need to stop sheltering in our own bubbles in our states, and support fellow Australian's. The PM needs to demand the interstate borders are opened before the carnage becomes permanent.