Tourism Support Package
12 March, 2021
The Australian Government announced a $1.2 billion support package for Australia’s travel, tourism and aviation sectors.
To drive recovery in our regions reliant on international tourists, the cost of up to 800,000 airfares (or around 45,000 seats each week) will be halved. The Tourism Aviation Network Support (TANS) program will run from April to 30 July 2021, with discounted tickets to an initial 13 regions across the country available on airline websites beginning 1 April 2021. Flights, routes and the total number of tickets will be driven by demand and are subject to final discussions with airlines.
Tourism Australia will support the program through targeted marketing activity as part of the successful domestic marketing campaign Holiday Here This Year.
The SME Loan Guarantee Scheme will be extended and expanded to support up to $40 billion in lending to small and medium enterprises. The Scheme will be targeted and tailored to support those businesses that have been relying on JobKeeper during the March quarter.
The $50 million Business Events Grants Program will be extended by three months to support Australian businesses to hold multi-day business events, covering up to 50 per cent of costs incurred in participating business events during the 2021 calendar year.
The $94.6 million Zoos and Aquarium program will also be extended by six months to support zoos, aquariums and wildlife parks to maintain their animal populations where their tourism revenue has been affected by travel and social distancing restrictions.
A second round of the COVID-19 Consumer Travel Support Program will provide further assistance to travel agents and tour arrangement service providers. More detail on this measure will be announced shortly.
The support package also includes a range of other aviation industry assistance measures.
For more information visit: austrade.gov.au/Tourism-and-business
