Senate hears of travel travails
AFTA Chairman Tom Manwaring and CEO Darren Rudd yesterday clearly laid out the dire straits the travel industry is currently navigating, in an appearance before the Federal Senate Select Committee into COVID-19.
The pair appeared in a joint session with the Business Events Council of Australia, with various Senators asking about specific support measures the industry was receiving from Government.
Rudd noted that the sector was very grateful for JobKeeper 2.0, but in response to a question about whether travel agents are being factored into the Tourism Australia Holiday Here This Year marketing campaign noted that “there won’t be a complete retooling of travel agents substituting domestic product”.
“We are actively trying to help them market and think of innovative packaging of product for the domestic market...[but] the problem for our particular membership base is that
70% of the trips booked are international,” the AFTA CEO said.
Manwaring echoed the concerns, noting that domestic product for many years had been geared to direct sales, “sidestepping the travel agent”.
“While general tourism is an earning avenue for travel agents, what we would like to see is a little bit more of ‘See your travel agent’ amongst some of those Tourism Australia ads,” he said.
The AFTA Chairman also alluded to the proposed business support package for agents which is part of the organisation’s upcoming budget submission (TD yesterday).
He highlighted the plight of the industry in contrast to other sectors of the economy, which will be “up and away once the borders open - coffee shops will be thriving as will everything else, pubs, clubs, caravan parks etc”.
“Travel agents though will wait a further six months before earnings can be created,” Manwaring said, noting that as a result “a lot of agencies will fail without that support”.
“It’s a $45 billion business currently going in reverse, and 3,000 travel agents and 40,000 staff depend on it,” he said.
Rudd and Manwaring raised the importance of safe state and international border reopenings.
“We think it’s critical that a system be developed which will enable the opening of some corridors in a safe way...other countries in the world seem to be making more progress than we are,” they noted.