After nearly a year of COVID restrictions, State Premiers are yet to agree a common management policy relating to free movement within Australia. The resulting uncertainty around state borders has significantly impacted business events recovery and the Business Events Council of Australia (BECA) is calling for State and Federal leaders to commit to an evidence-based approach to managing internal borders, to rebuild business confidence.
The council points out, along with a growing number of voices in the events sector, that this approach is critical to the survival and recovery of operators in the business events industry, many of who have endured up to eighteen months of little of no revenue.
The media release, which pulls no punches, states that the business events industry will not recover if limited to running state-based events and that with no inbound international travel, the national market is critical for recovery. The media release describes the current unilateral approach taken by each State as a “haphazard and unnecessary” shutdown of borders.
In the absence of a common and evidence based approach on internal border management Dr Vanessa Findlay, Chair of BECA has a stark message for government “With the impending conclusion of the JobKeeper scheme, the industry is deeply concerned that the conditions that led to JobKeeper have not improved for the business events industry. Businesses cannot remain viable with revenue losses that are averaging more than 70%, and this has been ongoing for over 12 months now. We cannot see a path to recovery for the industry if it does not include some form of ongoing targeted Government support.”
