AFTA UPDATE

from the Australian Federation of Travel Agents

AFTA along with many other peak bodies and individuals has been calling for many months now for faster vaccination rollout and takeup so that we can all get travelling again and back to living more normally again.

You will have seen our increasing use of #GetTravelReady and #BeTravelReady as part of our commitment to boosting a sense of urgency around vaccination takeup. We had already added this to our advocacy priorities and had started to work on a supporting campaign.

Once National Cabinet agreed on 30 Jul the magic release numbers for thresholds for Stages 3 and 4 of their national roadmap, we were able to progress these campaigns as shared most recently via our 03 Aug Member Update Webinar.

As a member organisation, we are always happy to also support and promote our members’ campaigns. So, when Linda Forster contacted us after our Tue webinar to ask for our amplification of her campaign, we were of course very happy to do so especially given its fit with our campaign of bringing the need to inspire Australians to be travel ready via media and social media.

From individual initiatives like Linda’s through to Travel Daily’s #givetravelashot and News Limited’s Call To Arms campaign, we are all focused on the same end. Let’s get to 80% as quickly as we can to end the lockdowns, and the devastating impact on lives and livelihoods. We also ask our members to maximise your databases to promote the vaccination cause so that open borders and international travel happens as soon as possible.

Of course, parallel to this, as we find ourselves as travel agents and businesses in our 18th month of what is in reality an extended hard lockdown, we continue to press the case federally and at a State and Territory Government level for ongoing, much needed financial support and relief.

We are very grateful for the ongoing access to and support from Federal Tourism Minister the Hon Dan Tehan and his office as well as Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman, Bruce Billson and his team.

It is pleasing to hear that so many of our members have now received payments from their applications for support for Rounds 1 and 2 of the Federal Government’s COVID-19 Consumer Travel Support Grants Program.

We continue to work with and for those still waiting for a positive outcome and we continue the fight for ongoing support via this mechanism including via Round 3. Stay tuned.