Tourism value leads to fees review
Immigration and Border Protection minister Scott Morrison has announced that the review will look at the Passenger Movement Charge (PMC) and the cost of visitor visas to Australia.
Tourism and Transport Forum acting chief executive Trent Zimmerman said the review needs to consider reducing the burden of taxes and charges on visitors so that the sector can become more internationally competitive.
“If the government is serious about tourism’s role as an economic development strategy, this review must look at the impact of taxes like the Passenger Movement Charge on the sector,” Zimmerman said.
Zimmerman has stated that the government needs to be bolder in regards to budget neutrality and that Australia’s tourism is a major export earner and a growth industry for Australia.
Generating $30 billion a year in export earnings for Australia, international tourism is one of Australia’s most valuable services that employ over 540,000 Australians.
“In fact, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) estimates that abolishing the PMC alone would add some $1.7 billion to the Australian economy annually, far outweighing the tax revenue.” Zimmerman said.
With the PMC collecting more than $900 million a year and border processing at Australia’s international airports only costing around $230 million a year, the PMC over-collects by almost $700 million a year.
“It makes little economic sense to spend millions of dollars promoting Australia as a destination and then placing financial and administrative barriers in the way of the very visitors you are trying to attract." Zimmerman said.
With other countries recognising the benefits of international tourism they have since reformed their visa systems to facilitate tourism growth.
TTF welcomes the government’s review as a step towards removing some of the inequities that are reducing Australia’s competitiveness as a destination and hampering growth in international visitation to Australia
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