Australian tourism body not worried about Qantas engine woes

MELBOURNE - Tourism Australia, the peak body representing tourism in Australia, has said that it does not believe two recent Qantas engine failures will have an adverse impact on visitor numbers.

In the second mishap in two days, a Boeing 747-400 jet carrying about 400 passengers was six minutes out of Singapore on its way to Sydney on Friday when it was forced to turn back because of a “contained engine failure”.

It landed safely at Changi Airport.

The website news.com. au quoted Tourism Australia Managing Director Andrew McEvoy, as saying that he didn’t think the airline’s woes would have an adverse effect on tourism.

“I definitely don’t think it will impact on tourism numbers in Australia. They’ve had some trouble of late, but they’re a great airline,” McEvoy said.

“People will have confidence in Qantas because they have such a long and strong history with safety. But they’re also so many different ways to get into the country,” he added.

McEvoy said despite the surging Australian dollar passing the Greenback, inbound tourist numbers were up six per cent overall this year.

“Key markets like China are 20 per cent, Japan is 19 per cent and Korea is 17 per cent up. Our inbound numbers are up so you can’t say the dollar is preventing people from coming into the country,” he said. (ANI)