19th March 2020 By Staff Reporter | news@tourismticker.com | @tourismticker
Large tourism operators are preparing to shed almost 5000 jobs in the sector, says Tourism Industry Aotearoa.
A TIA survey of 65 large tourism businesses showed they were in “desperate” need of assistance.
“Across those businesses, there is a minimum of 4890 planned job losses. 22 of the operators are preparing to close their businesses and another 21 are planning partial closures,” said TIA chief executive Chris Roberts.
The first of those layoffs were expected to start today happening today with the first business closures next week.
“These include some of our most iconic, well-respected and award-winning operators. Every one of these 65 businesses is desperate for a conversation with government,” said Roberts.
The Government’s $12.1bn support package unveiled on Tuesday include a wage subsidy capped at $150,000 per business, much lower than the monthly payroll for a large operator.
“There seems little prospect that the tourism economy will have any level of recovery in the next six months, and it will likely take several years to get back to previous levels,” said Roberts.
“But if we are to recover, we need our businesses to be able to retain the skills and experience of their employees, so they are ready to respond when the COVID-19 crisis is over.”
TIA was “pleading for the Government to act with extreme urgency” to try and save livelihoods in the industry.
The Government has said that it is working on a package that would cover larger businesses but it would likely roll-out on a “case-by-case basis”.
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