The Queensland government admits its tourist incentives will not offset the looming loss of the JobKeeper wage subsidy.

Thousands of tourism companies have survived international border closings thanks to JobKeeper.

But many will go under and lay off workers when the program ends later this month.

The state government and the Commonwealth have stimulus programs, but none will be enough to get operators into trouble.

Queensland Tourism Minister Stirling Hinchliffe says some form of wage subsidy is needed to allow tourism businesses to cling to international borders.

“The measures we are taking will help keep supporting these operators, but nothing will be as good as the income support that JobKeeper has provided,” he told reporters.

“So it is a big risk that it will end at the end of March and we will have more to say in the next few days.”

The state government announced on Wednesday that it would continue to waive Cairns Marina fees for Great Barrier Reef operators.

The fees were suspended in February 2020 and will remain in effect until February 2022.

Queensland offers $ 200 tourist experience vouchers for citizens and $ 150 for students visiting the reef.

Mr Hinchliffe said 106,000 Queenslanders who applied received 15,000 tourism experience vouchers.

He said 160 had already been redeemed since they were given earlier this week.

“As we can see, this will continue until the end of June. This will be a great opportunity to support these operators and, as we have seen, encourage local Queensland visitors to spend more like international visitors,” the minister said.

Opposition leader David Crisafulli called for recognition for three initiatives in support of tourism and said the Liberal National Party had previously announced the policy.

Mr. Hinchliffe denied that the government copied all opposition policies.

“Nothing is copied what others have come up with, it’s what we initiated and we had discussions with industry and education specialists about this late last year,” he said.