Coronavirus: Travel agents plead for one hotspot rule for all

Travel agents have warned they will be hit by the states’ ad hoc ­responses to Sydney’s northern beaches coronavirus cluster.

Passengers await flights at Sydney airport as the northern beaches’ COVID-19 cluster puts Christmas plans in doubt. Picture: Joel Carrett

Travel agents have warned they will be hit by the states’ ad hoc ­responses to Sydney’s northern beaches coronavirus cluster, as they unite with the broader tourism sector to demand a national approach to outbreaks.

Just a week after the opening of borders triggered a 20 per cent ­increase in bookings, Australian Federation of Travel Agents chair Tom Manwaring said he expected a rush of cancellations. AFTA, the Australian Tourism Industry Council and the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry appealed to premiers to adopt a national approach to coronavirus clusters as Western Australia imposed restrictions on anyone from NSW while other states targeted Sydney or the northern beaches local government area.

“Has business been affected by this last outbreak? Undoubtedly, because it undermines the confidence that has returned,” he said. “People don’t know whether to go or not to go, so they’ll hold off or be looking to cancel. I’d suggest some will wait for the weekend to make a call on Christmas.

“At best travel agents are currently doing 5 per cent of the business they were doing last year. Our Christmas wish is for a unified ­national program that has clear boundaries to allow the travel bubbles to begin, whether it’s inter-cities or inter-countries. It is critical for the confidence of the whole country.”

ACCI tourism chair John Hart said it was the “disproportionate” reaction to the cluster driven by panic that would impact the industry. “I don’t think you can put a dollar value on it at this point,” he said. “It is the knock to confidence and, to some extent, the inconvenience that this causes and it may mean people will cancel anyway. Even if they’re allowed to travel they may not. That in itself would be incredibly damaging.”

Scott Morrison refused to criticise premiers and chief ministers for their new restrictions, saying he would not second-guess their decisions as they attempted to protect Australians. He conceded the states had rejected the commonwealth’s definition of a COVID-19 hotspot, which was drafted to help map out when and how they should react to outbreaks.

Simon Westaway, ATIC executive director, said the tourism industry’s confidence had been dealt a blow as Australians tried to figure out if they could keep to their Christmas plans. “There just needs to be a ­serious reality check around how we look at these hotspots. A national ­approach would be absolutely ­endorsed by industry,” he said.

“States and territories are entitled to do what they seek to do but there’s a national interest at play and that’s put well down the list. It’s all about the localised interests of various states and territories. That’s deeply frustrating.”

With about 250,000 people on the northern beaches advised to stay at home over the weekend, Destination Gold Coast chair Paul Donovan said the local tourism industry would be okay unless restrictions were imposed on the greater Sydney region.

“Most of those people (on the northern beaches) come from beach destinations anyway. They are less likely to be the people that would come,” he said. “We would hope the majority of people that are big spenders on the Gold Coast are from the greater Sydney area.”