AFTA UPDATE
DFAT travel advisory to China is set to Level 4 - I don’t think anyone would have called this as a position we would be in at the start of the 2020 year.
As serious as the issue is, unfortunately the confusion and frustration that it delivers is once again top of mind within the travel industry. In practical terms, the impact of this Level 4 advisory and the wide ranging measures that the Federal Government has taken in dealing with inbound Chinese nationals coming to or entering Australia is far more impactful that its effect on the outbound sector.
That said, Level 4 advice has an impact for a couple of reasons. First, is the question of those who have travel booked in the coming weeks and months to the country in which the Level 4 has been applied. Should they cancel? Should they change? Should they go?
Second is the broader issue of not wanting to travel at all. This is a real challenge, as both countries look to place total travel bans on their people due to the broader risk assessment undertaken as to the overall wellbeing of their people. CLICK HERE for a great resource on the Worth Health Organization’s updates and information.
The Q&A and the Myth buster tabs are of particular interest especially when consideration is being given to travel to places other than China – the rest of the world – and I am sure this may be helpful as the truth is sought amidst the deluge of media reports, which do paint a very dark and doomy picture.
Don’t get me wrong, the coronavirus is a serious global medical crisis and we can all only hope that everything is being done to control the spread and in the end put a stop to this. But in the meantime, the world needs to keep moving and people need to keep travelling if not for the future of the global travel industry, for the future of humankind such that we can go on to live our normal lives in the face of this kind of threat.
I suspect the coronavirus will be with us for at least the next two months, and while the situation is ever-changing, my hope is that the messaging will calm as the situation is contained.
AFTA continues to work with the Federal Government and its agencies as they move to do all that is felt necessary to keep Australians safe, and we will continue to provide as much information as we can to our members and the broader travel industry via the trade media outlets as this situation unfolds.
The travel industry is a resilient industry that has a strong history of dealing with these global challenges and while I have no doubt that this virus situation will impact many in the travel value chain, getting the right information out to all becomes the key to the short-term and critical to the long term impacts as Australians make their decisions about that they want to do.