Businesses thrown a lifeline under a $77 million West Australian support package say they are grateful, but what they really need is for the state's border to reopen.
The funding, announced by the McGowan government yesterday, is meant to help those most affected by the decision to delay the border reopening.
Described by Premier Mark McGowan as a "shot in the arm" support package, it will be shared between travel agents, tourism businesses and those working in events and international education.
Those groups were among the most vocal when it came to voicing their displeasure at the indefinite delay to a full easing of WA's borders.
But even without a new date in sight, businesses said it felt like the government was listening to and understanding their struggles.
Naturally, tourism was among the hardest hit by the decision to delay.
Tours, attractions and events in Perth have reported an 82 per cent downturn, while their regional counterparts said business had dropped by 55 per cent, according to figures from WA's Tourism Council.
As part of the package, many businesses will be able to claim between $10,000 and $20,000 for costs they incurred in preparing for February 5, with an additional $50,000 on offer to cover the cost of refunding deposits from international and interstate cancellations.
Tourism Council chief executive Evan Hall was happy with those amounts.
"It's never going to cover the loss that these tourism businesses have suffered, but it will help particularly small businesses to keep going until we get an announcement on the border," he said.
"It is about cash at a time when you have no cash and you're deciding whether or not to shut up shop for good, or to wait until we get a border reopening and get tourism back into WA."
Mr Hall said he hoped it would be enough to keep many businesses that had already been battered for the last two years afloat, for now.
Border backflip a 'significant blow'
Dylan Lodge is operations manager at Triple J Tours, which runs boat cruises along the Ord River and Lake Argyle in WA's Kimberley.
After the "significant blow" of the delayed border reopening, Mr Lodge said the support would keep things running until a new date was announced.
"We had been starting to gear up and get our gear ready, so boats, buses, starting the staffing side of things, committing to staff and spending money," he said.
The company has already lost more than $170,000 worth of bookings, less than half of which will be covered by the new support.
"It's a welcome announcement obviously, anything that we can have in terms of support through these times," he said.
"Support packages will only ever go so far and never replicate or replace what you get in a full season.
"What we really needed is the borders to be opened to the eastern states to allow free movement of people and for us to have our first full season in three years."
Travel agent 'grateful' for cash
Jo Francis has steered Global Travel Solutions through the pandemic and was pleased to see the sector recognised in the latest round of support.
"But am I grateful? Blood hell I am.
"We are eternally grateful that there is something and we just hope that long-term if these sort of things continue, that they'll continue to help us."
She said the support told the sector it was valued by the government.
But it did not solve the problem of $500,000 of credit sitting on her books from customers who have not been able to rebook since 2020.
"We were really at a crossroads," she said.
"We probably to be honest needed twice as much, but I don't want to sound ungrateful either."
But Ms Francis said beyond the financial toll of the border delay, it would be tough to rebuild the trust of frustrated travellers whose plans were thrown into disarray.
Premier hints of more support in future
Announcing the new package, Mr McGowan indicated more financial support would be made available as WA continued to make its way through the pandemic.
"As greater spread of the Omicron variant occurs, we expect to deliver further measures to support Western Australian businesses, and will continue to listen and respond," he said.
That news was welcomed by WA's Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCI WA).
"We know that there will be immediate term impacts to cash flow, profitability and worker availability," CCI WA chief executive Chris Rodwell said.
"The WA government is in a strong financial position to alleviate some of these impacts to ensure businesses and workers are protected."
But CCI WA, like the Tourism Council, Mr Lodge and Ms Francis, was desperate for the government to set a new date.
That hope remains some way off though, with Mr McGowan giving nothing away yesterday.
"We're reviewing the situation over February, and we'll be able to provide more advice when we finalise the dates on those sorts of things," he said.
