Travel industry coronavirus: Helloworld Caroline Springs crippled by pandemic
A travel agent in Melbourne’s west has called for a vital funding injection into Australia’s travel industry, which she says will take years to recover from the pandemic.
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The heart wrenching truth about what lockdown and border closures have done to the travel industry has been laid bare by one of SUBURB’S most popular travel agents.
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A travel agent in SUBURB has called for a vital funding injection into Australia’s travel industry, which she says has been brought to its knees by the pandemic.
Travel agents are desperately calling for a financial lifeline from the Federal Government to help them survive the pandemic.
Meral Murgoski, owner of Helloworld Travel in Caroline Springs and Point Cook, said the impact of the virus had been devastating on the industry.
“I’ve only got two and a half staff (including one part-timer) left. If it wasn’t for JobKeeper I wouldn’t have even been able to keep them,” Ms Murgoski said.
“I think it’s going to take two years minimum to get back to where we were when things reopen. The first 12 months we’re not even going to be making money to pay our rent, we’ll be building our folio.”
Ms Murgoski said she was forced to close her third store, Helloworld Travel in Watergardens Shopping Centre, and let go 10 staff.
Her Watergardens store had been open for 21 years and she said her businesses were going from strength to strength before the virus struck.
Now she said she was back to square one and scraping together cash to pay her bills and support her family.
The Australian Federation of Travel Agents is calling 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).
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