AFTA UPDATE

THE coronavirus continues to play out across the industry here in Australia and across the globe and it seems that each day a new piece of information, or challenge presents itself.

The Federal Government continues to monitor the situation with extreme caution, and while the Do Not Travel – Level 4 to China travel advisory remains in place and the isolation requirements remain in force for Chinese nationals coming to Australia, the end sadly does not appear to be coming soon.

The biggest question being asked both within the government and industry is – when should we plan for this to end and bring back certainty?

This is an extremely important question, but a very difficult one to give an iron-clad response to.

My read on the situation is that I expect that the Level 4 ban and travel restrictions will continue for several more weeks. I have no official information to support this, it is just my read on the situation. With the Australians who have been relocated by the government to both Christmas Island and Darwin still within the recommended practice of quarantine, I feel it is most likely that an all-clear from that process is needed and a retraction in the virus spread and death rate before substantive changes will be forthcoming. While that is very negative and worrying news for all involved in the travel industry, the key thing and the realistic facts in all of this, is that people should still feel confident to be travelling to the rest of the world from Australia, as there has been no other travel advisories to the contrary released by the government.

The other area of concern within the industry and across the community, is the challenges faced by a few cruise ships who have found active cases of the coronavirus on board the ship.

Over the years, various ships have faced medical programs that can spread on board and these companies are well placed to address and deal with these issues. Of course, clients are questioning what they should do in relation to future bookings – it is only natural for people to do this.

The key with this is that the business of operating travel products across the world must go on. Millions of people rely upon this to keep going to maintain their livelihoods. The simple fact of the matter is that the risk of contracting the coronavirus outside of China is incredibly low and the World Heath Organization (WHO) is 100% focused on arresting the spread, so people thinking about travel in Apr, May, Jun and beyond, it would seem to me that the evidence does not support making changes to travel plans at this point in the process.

Each travel company is going to make its own decisions about what arrangements they put in place to address concerns, cancellation requests, changes and the like that people are wanting to make.

There is not and cannot be a simple single solution to how each company decides to respond and react. While I do understand the frustrations and concerns being raised across the industry, now is the time to remain as calm as we can, keep a keen eye on the government travel advisory and messages and honestly hope that the situation can be contained and controlled as quickly as possible.

I know that this is not easy for everyone, but the industry has faced harder times than this in the past and I remain confident that the future on the other side of this virus looks even better than it did when this started.