Australia uncorks $928 million tourism support package to boost local travel

In a bid to boost local tourism and support ailing airlines due to shut down of international flights because of the pandemic, the Australian government proposed a A$1.2 billion ($928 million) tourism support package on Thursday.

The package will provide 800,000 tickets on domestic flights to more than ten destinations around the land down under. Along with the ticket subsidy, the program also includes providing cheap loans to small tourism operators.

More particularly, the package will give A$200 million to Qantas Airways Ltd and Virgin Australia from April to October to aid with compensation for the international flying crew, skills development, and mothballed aircraft maintenance.

Following this development, shares of tourism-related stock in Australia jumped, with travel agents Flight Centre Ltd and Webjet Ltd hovered near one-year intraday highs with over 6% increase. Qantas added 3%.