| ACA Update 09 Jun 21
Vax = Pax

WITH Jill Abel, CEO Australian Cruise Association:
It’s been an exciting week for
Australia’s travel industry as we
gathered in Sydney for ATE.
A hybrid gathering this year – with
some participating in person and
some online – the only drawback
was that no representatives from
Victoria were able to attend.
This then led to numerous
discussions around vaccinations
being the key to open the
borders both domestically and
internationally with the issue of free
movement for the fully vaccinated
apparently having been discussed in
Canberra last week.
Several industry leaders at the
conference welcomed a “test
case” whereby fully vaccinated
Australians could travel freely
around the country – immune to
any border closures or lockdowns.
ACA supports this positive
approach to finding a solution
which would open up travel in a safe
manner.
We were also encouraged by the
comments from Federal Tourism
Minister Dan Tehan recently
when he noted that he was
looking forward to working with
our industry to increase cruising
opportunities in Australia.
We are hopeful that as we
continue discussions with
Government ahead of the end of
the current Biosecurity Declaration
on 17 Jun that we can at least find
a way to bring in smaller foreignflagged
ships as a first step.
This would be a great start to
building on the current capacity
we currently have with only four
smaller vessels in the country and
would work toward satisfying the
current strong demand for cruise.