Wimmera hospitality and tourism welcomes international arrivals - but doubts remain

On Monday, Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced that international travellers could enter Australia with a visa from February 21, provided they had received at least two doses of the vaccine.

However premier Daniel Andrews has hinted at the possibility of requiring tourists to also have a booster shot in order to enter hospitality venues and events.

Wimmera Australia Hotels Association representative and Exchange Hotel publican Nick Murray said enforcing a third dose requirement for international arrival would place an unnecessary burden on the hospitality industry.

"The government really has to get their act together and get some uniformity around this," he said.

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"Hospitality operators are past playing policeman at the door. I am simply not prepared to do that.

"Tourism operators have done it really tough. If we start saying you have to be triple vaxxed but they are only double vaxxed, people will just not come.

"It just doesn't make sense to impose another hurdle which they don't face in other countries."

Mr Murray said Horsham received a steady flow of tourists from nearby attractions, as well as workers looking to fulfill their visa extension.

"In places like Halls Gap and tourist hot spots nearby that we get the overflow from. That's where we have missed the international input," he said.

"Over the years we have also had a lot of international travellers and backpackers come and stay with us seasonally. That is another aspect we have really missed.

"We have had a lot of people come through and work with use over the years. That has been a bit of a hole to fill and we have certainly struggled."

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The lack of international arrivals has also been felt in the nearby tourist centre of Halls Gap.

Absolute Outdoors co-owner Adrian Manikas provides adventure tours of the Grampians National Park and said a surge in domestic travel has managed to offset some of the losses.

"We don't have to exact statistics, but international visitors have historically always been about 30 per cent of the visitation to the Grampians," he said.

"Where has been possible we have had some good influxes of domestic visitors, the international market would definitely help."

In November 2021, Absolute Outdoors launched the Grampians Peaks Outdoor Walking Company, which operates toured trips along the newly-opened Grampians Peaks Trail.

Mr Manikas said the new business was keen to capture the international market once visitors return.

Staffing also remained an issue in Halls Gap, with many hospitality businesses relying on backpackers to fill staffing gaps in the peak season.

"Almost all hospitality venues in town have had one day a week in town they have been closed," he said.

"Some of them have been closed for multiple or longer stretches just to give their staff a break because they haven't had that bumper summer season which would usually be filled by backpackers.

"The biggest challenge for businesses has been scaling up and down, staffing and resources."

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