Coronavirus: Travel agents push for $120 million campaign for government help
Canberra travel agent Deb Long says her industry will help the tourism sector to rebound — but it needs government help to stay afloat.
Canberra Star
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Canberra travel agent Deb Long has spent much of this year working around the clock to make overseas airlines and hotels refund thousands of dollars for dream holidays her customers might never end taking.
Ms Long, the owner of Weston Cruise and Travel, is among hundreds of travel agents whose booming businesses have been decimated by border closures and other brutal restrictions aimed at stopping the spread of coronavirus.
“Some weeks (since the start of the pandemic) I have made $66,” she said.
Today, the industry’s peak body, the Australian Federation of Travel Agents, is launching its bid for a $125 million rescue package for the industry.
Despite builders, artists, the film industry and airlines all being eligible for support, travel agents are yet to get any specific help from the government.
Ms Long said if it wasn’t for travel agents working to get $6 billion in refunds for their customers (with another $4 billion expected) taxpayer-funded agencies like the ACCC would have been inundated with customer complaints against operators.
Ms Long also said state and territory governments needed to think about the ramifications of keeping their borders closed longer than necessary.
“There are cruise lines that want to bring small ships here, 140 guests, less than a restaurant holds, but they’re not allowed,” Ms Long said.
With Australia’s international border unlikely to open until late 2021, Ms Long said Canberra agencies had their hopes pinned on customers choosing to travel to warmer parts of Australia next winter.
A modest stimulus package would help keep 40,000 people in work — many of them with years of irreplaceable experience — and would help the tourism sector rebound, a AFTA spokesman said.
The package would be similar to one rolled out by the New Zealand government last month.
“There’s skill and expertise in being a travel agent – it takes time. If we lose them, the impact on the wider tourism sector is significant,” he said.
The spokesman said that if small businesses such as Ms Long’s closed, it would be a boon to overseas and online operators, which don’t pay tax in Australia, don’t employ locals and aren’t closely regulated.
