Submission to Senate Select Committee Inquiry Into Bilateral Air Service Agreements

The accommodation sector is at the core of the visitor economy, employing over 110,000 Australians.  Like other sectors connected with tourism, accommodation businesses have suffered through a difficult three years and have not yet fully recovered the ground lost during the pandemic.   In particular, the sector is still being negatively impacted by the fact that international tourism has not yet fully returned to pre-pandemic levels.  As this submission makes clear, improved aviation access from international visitor source countries to Australia is of critical importance to the accommodation sector.  Decisions taken through the Bilateral Agreement process need to balance the needs of aviation as well as the tourism industry and travellers in order to achieve a sustainable competitive market.