Travellers in full flight
THE travel industry is bouncing back as travellers cash in their long held air, cruise and hotel credits and spend up big on premium hotel rooms, longer stays and pricier flights.
Helloworld chief executive Andrew Burnes said travellers were using their cruise, tour and air credits but also spending hard dollars to book significant additional travel.
“Travel credits are coming home to roost,” Mr Burnes said, adding that since early February there had been a steady and significant increase in demand for travel.
“This is translating into increased revenue as well as obvious increases in new bookings,” said Mr Burnes, who runs Australia and New Zealand’s second largest travel network.
While Helloworld’s air ticket sales are back at 70-80 per cent of their pre-covid levels, because of the increase in average fares new bookings are surpassing the company’s 2019 pre-covid financial levels.
“Our outlook for the rest of the year is to continue our positive trajectory,’’ he said.
“There is significant additional demand for international and domestic travel. People are booking everything. Cruises for 2023 are very popular.”
Flight Centre’s Graham Turner estimated that flights out of Australia were operating at about 60 per cent of their pre-covid levels.
Flight Centre’s business arm, Corporate Traveller Australia, indicated that medical and finance industries were the biggest international travellers out of Australia at present and Canada was the most popular destination.
In Sydney, Goldman Travel joint managing director, David Goldman, said travel had roared back.
“Both our corporate and leisure bookings are increasing daily,” Mr Goldman said.
He said some younger clients had never used travel agents but were doing so now because of the difficulties in contacting airlines.
“Trying to call an airline is virtually impossible,” Mr Goldman said. “For some clients it’s the first time … they now understand the role. They get it now.’’
Mr Goldman said the only thing holding back travel was the lack of flights.
“There’s less capacity out of Australia, as a result everyone is paying premium prices for airfares … but they are doing it because they have the need for travel; they are doing it because it’s been stagnant for 2½ years – people are ready to connect,” he said.