Travel industry coronavirus: Lilydale Travel Centre wants borders open
The heart wrenching truth about what lockdown and border closures have done to the travel industry has been laid bare by one of Yarra Valley most popular travel agents.
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A Yarra Valley travel agent has urged the community to support local over online booking websites, as the industry calls for a $125 million Federal Government support package.
Lilydale Travel Centre owner Ian Garbett loves to make people’s dreams come true, but for the last eight months he has been working for goodwill – and not money.
“We’ve had no income since March and we’ve been working tirelessly for our clients to ensure refunds wherever possible,” Mr Garbett said.
“We’ve done the work to get the bookings and now we’re working to undo all those.”
He said every agent was in the same boat.
This comes as the Australian Federation of Travel Agents calls on the government to bankroll a $125 million support package to help the country’s 4000 travel agencies.
Australia’s travel industry employs 40,000 people and contributes $28 billion each year to the economy, and 70 per cent of international travel is booked through agents, according to information provided by AFTA.
The majority of travel agencies are small, family owned businesses, and AFTA estimates up to a quarter will close as a result of the economic fallout from the virus.
The industry hasn’t received any support outside of the standard coronavirus support packages offered to all businesses such as JobKeeper and JobSeeker.
In contrast, other industries have received hundreds of millions of dollars in monetary relief, including builders through the home builder scheme ($688 million), Arts and entertainment ($250 million), film and television ($400 million), and aviation ($1.1 billion).
Mr Garbett has been working a second job as a contact cleaner for Badger Creek Primary School to supplement some of the income.
“It has been keeping some income coming in. I do four hours of that in the morning and then I log into work to call up and continue to push for refunds,” he said.
He said everyone in the travel was passionate and loved their job.
“There are not many jobs where you can make people’s dreams come true,” Mr Garbett said.
“That’s what we do.”
He said the travel industry was the first shut down and would be last to come back.
“We’ve been around since 1976, and we’ve owned it for the last 14 years,” Mr Garbett said.
“And at the drop of a hat our business is shut down through no fault of my own, at the whim of other people who ‘say yes you can open’ or ‘no you can’t’.”
“There are not many businesses that would tolerate that.”
Mr Garbett said he looked forward to domestic and international borders reopening so agents could get people booked on their holidays.
“It will turn, it will get better — it’s only a short hiccup,” he said.
“We’re here for the long haul.”
He appealed to the community to use local agents instead of booking holidays online.
“Our motto is ‘Locals look after locals’,” he said.
“Don’t go online and support international websites; they're not going to support local.
“I do. I go to the local coffee shop and use the newsagents down the road. I can’t see Booking.com doing that.”
He said it was a misconception that booking online was cheaper, and local agents looked after their clients — including working to get refunds.
“We get better rates. Online is not always cheaper,” Mr Garbett said.
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