Stand together, urges AFTA

AFTA Chairman Tom Manwaring and the AFTA Board are today urging the industry to speak with a single voice, after a grassroots email campaign from tour operators and agents targeting local Parliamentarians threatened to derail AFTA’s efforts to highlight the heavy impact of COVID-19 on the Australian travel sector.

Manwaring said right since the start of the pandemic, AFTA had been working closely with the Government, producing a series of submissions in partnership with KPMG to Treasury.

A final paper formally putting forward the travel industry’s case for a JobKeeper extension is due to be lodged next Tue, with ongoing close engagement with officials hoped to produce a positive outcome for the industry.

However a “scattergun” campaign has overnight seen some MPs react with concern that the collaborative relationship may be under threat.

“Some AFTA members are asking what the Federation is doing for them - what I say to them is you also need to be thinking ‘what can I do to help AFTA’ because we are working extremely hard on their behalf,” Manwaring told Travel Daily.

He said the Federation was acutely aware of the issues being faced by the industry, with multiple meetings just this week with Canberra bureaucrats to highlight the problems.

“We’re fighting on multiple fronts, and if our message gets diluted or confused it will result in worse outcomes,” he warned.

“Writing a letter to your MP might make you feel good but it’s not going to achieve anything,” Manwaring added, with politicians already in contact with AFTA today seeking clarification about the industry’s position.