Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison urged foreign tourists not to postpone previously planned trips to the country due to the massive bush fires. He made such a statement following his visit to the island of Kangaroo, the richest natural enclave off the southern coast of the country, where two major outbreaks of fire were recently eliminated.
"Australia is open, Australia is still a wonderful place to come and bring your family and enjoy your holidays," Morrison said after meeting with tour operators and farmers.
"Even here on Kangaroo Island, where a third of the island has obviously been decimated, two thirds of it is open and ready for business," he said. "It's important to keep the local economies vibrant at these times."
Tourism accounts for 3.1% of the gross domestic product, and Australia attracted 2.71 million vacationers last summer. But this year, hotel occupancy has declined, and some commonly crowded resorts have become real ghost towns due to natural disasters.
In Australia, thousands of people were left homeless due to fires that spanned over 10.3 million hectares of land - an area the size of South Korea. The number of dead and injured animals, according to ecologists at the University of Sydney, exceeded 1 billion individuals. According to the Copernicus, the European space environmental monitoring program, 400 megatons of carbon dioxide have already been emitted as a result of fires, coupled with hazardous air pollutants - combustion products.
Blogs
