Canberra
Australia’s bushfire crisis has cost the nation’s tourism industry one billion Australian dollars (690.7 million U.S. dollars). According to data from the Australian Tourism Industry Council (ATIC), almost 100 percent of bookings in some areas directly hit by bushfires have been cancelled. More than 60 percent of bookings in regional towns that have not been touched by fires have also been cancelled. Tourism operators in Canberra, which has not been threatened by fires but has been blanketed in smoke, have reported a 20 percent cancellation rate.
A vast majority of the cancellations came from Australians choosing to stay home, with international visitors so far keeping their plans. However, industry experts have warned that Australia’s reputation as a destination for international visitors will take a hit from coverage of the bushfires. Tourism Minister Simon Birmingham, who will meet tourism industry senior members on Thursday, told the Sydney Morning Herald that the government “stands ready” to help the industry recover.
Rain fell across parts of bushfire-ravaged eastern Australia on Thursday and more wet weather was forecast, giving some relief following months of catastrophic blazes fuelled by climate change.
The fires, unprecedented for Australia in terms of duration and intensity, have claimed 28 lives and killed an estimated billion animals.
Sustained hot weather and only very rare periods of light rain in the affected areas have deepened the crisis.
So authorities had been looking forward to this week’s rain hoping it would help contain or even extinguish some fires.
In the state of New South Wales, where many of the worst fires have burnt, there were “good falls” on some blazes early Thursday, the local meteorology bureau reported.
“Relief is here for a number of firefighters working across NSW,” the state’s Rural Fire Service said in a social media post accompanying video footage of rain falling in a burning forest.
“Although this rain won’t extinguish all fires, it will certainly go a long way towards containment.”
Before the rains, there were 30 blazes burning out of control in New South Wales.—APP
