There can be no doubt that tourism is one of the most severely impacted industries by the COVID-19 pandemic.
New national visitor survey results, released today by Tourism Research Australia, shows the sector lost another $2.9 billion in October alone.
This is another blow to a critical industry which had already lost $36.1 billion from declining domestic tourism revenue, without even considering the cost of the huge losses from international visitor revenue.
But this is not news to the Morrison Government.
Over the past 15 months they have watched as the tourism industry struggled through devastating bushfires which was then all but eclipsed by the impact of COVID-19.
They watched as the sector haemorrhaged 136,500 jobs.
They watched as tourism made its smallest contribution to the Australian economy in 16 years.
They watched as internationally reliant businesses and regions struggled to stay afloat due to the necessary restrictions that halted our $45.4 billion international visitor market.
It is clear the Morrison Government have abandoned this critical sector which is continuing to be significantly impacted by COVID-19, failing to provide a plan to protect jobs or target support and things will only get worse as JobKeeper and JobSeeker are wound back.
Tourism is vital to our economy, sustaining 300,000 odd businesses and employing over one million Australians.
The Government must deliver a clear plan to support the entire sector through this crisis, preventing hundreds of thousands more jobs being lost and ensuring that operators survive to drive our national economic recovery into the future.