CANBERRA — Australia will subsidize 800,000 domestic flights, help its two main airlines and offer cheap loans to small tourism operators as part of A$1.2 billion ($921 million) package to revive the travel sector, Prime Minister Scott Morrison will say on Thursday.
Tourism is one of Australia’s biggest industries, worth more than A$60 billion and employing about 5% of the country’s workforce. But the sector was crippled when the country shut its international borders in March 2020 to curtail the spread of COVID-19 – leaving tens of thousands of people on the country’s wage-subsidy scheme.
Seeking to prop up the industry when the subsidy scheme ends this month, Morr…
Keep on reading: ‘Ticket to recovery’: Australia to offer subsidized flights to support tourism