Few industries have been as badly hit by coronavirus, but local travel agents cautiously welcomed news that South Australia reopened its borders on Wednesday.
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"It's a start!" Leah Temple of Helloworld Travel Bowral, established more than 30 years ago, wrote on Facebook.
"Hopefully the first of many to follow!" Debbie Smith of Boland Travel, founded in 1988, agreed on the same platform.
Travel agents have been decimated by COVID-19, Ms Temple said. The country's 40,000 travel agents have seen an estimated 90 per cent loss in revenue.
Closed state borders have made travel within Australia difficult, while international travel - an estimated 80 per cent of agents' business before COVID - has seemed a remote dream. Experts predict the industry might not fully recover until 2024.
Neither Helloworld Bowral and Boland Travel has earned any income since March, the owners said.
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Hanging in there
"It's been a very difficult six months," Ms Smith said. She has owned the agency since 2010, and employs two locals.
"We're just trying to hang in there. We've almost hibernated the business so that we can hopefully still be here for the long term, and handle everybody's trips when they're ready to go again. But there's no real light at the end of the tunnel at this point. We don't have a date on when they might reopen international borders; and until that happens, it's very difficult to plan ahead."
The only business her agency had done recently were one-way fares for people trying to return home to the UK or the Philippines: "Repatriation - trying to get people back, and no real holidays as such," Ms Smith said.
Instead, both Boland Travel and Helloworld had refunded the cancelled holiday trips their clients had hoped to take this year.
"More or less," Ms Temple said, "at our own expense. We have a duty to our customers to get their money back to them."
Repatriating the money from overseas suppliers - cruise liners, airlines, hotels, and tour companies - is complex, Ms Temple explained; the money sometimes passes through the hands of two or three middlemen.
"We've really been doing that to maintain the goodwill with our client base in the Southern Highlands," Ms Temple said, "so that when things improve, those people remember how much we assisted in getting those funds back, and be ready to spend that money with us to get back overseas, once they can."
AFTA seeks government assistance
The Australian Federation of Travel Agents is seeking a $125 million financial 'travel agent support package' and business relief measures to help travel agents survive. Related industries such as aviation have received financial support, but little has trickled down to travel agents, Ms Smith said; at present, travel agents are relying on JobKeeper.
"We need something that is specifically targeted for travel agents," Ms Smith said. "The downturn happened immediately in March, and we will probably not see any significant upturn until international borders have been reopened for a couple of months. We were first hit, and we'll be the last to recover."
Before coronavirus, travel was one of Australia's most thriving industries; Australians spent more than $46 billion on international travel - the largest import sector of the economy.
Ms Temple believes travel can still be a viable business; travel agents will be needed in a post-COVID world where travel is more complex.
"There are going to be more requirements and restrictions in terms of what you've got to do to get on a plane, and different rules are for getting in and out of countries," Ms Temple said.
State borders could bring relief
State borders reopening this week will not solve the problem, but it would be a stopgap.
"We would certainly expect that we will get interest from our client base for those regions opening up, but it's not going to fill the hole that our business has relied on from international travel," Ms Temple said.
Ms Smith thinks it could take a month after the state borders open for people to start travelling again; they might be cautious in case, as happened earlier this year, borders open only to quickly shut again due to further outbreaks.
Ms Temple hoped her clients interested in travelling to other states would be willing to book through a travel agent.
"Certainly we would request the local community to get behind us and support us with their business," she said.
"A lot of Australians feel quite comfortable doing those bookings themselves. However, typically it doesn't cost them anymore to deal through a travel agent, and frequently a travel agent will be able to add value to that experience, by providing little insights or tweaking their itinerary, or suggesting things to see or do they might not have thought of themselves."
Future travel plans
Treasurer Josh Frydenberg expects the travel ban to lift and international flights to resume at the start of 2021.
Ms Temple is already selling overseas travel for the second half of next year. "There is a level of confidence in the industry that there will be some resumption of travel through to the Northern Hemisphere by then," she said.
In the meantime, Helloworld is taking bookings for domestic travel from early 2021 - to Western Australia or Queensland, in the hope that borders will open by the start of the summer holidays, or luxury cruises through the Kimberleys.
Plane flights over Antarctica have also been popular. "You obviously don't land anywhere," Ms Temple said; "it's just a sightseeing trip, but Antarctica is a bucket list destination - not everyone wants to get onto a little Zodiac boat, so seeing it from the skies is a good alternative."
Boland Travel is selling Canadian and Polynesian cruises leaving later this year, and North Atlantic cruises for next year.
A supportive community
Throughout a difficult year, both Ms Smith and Ms Temple appreciated the support and understanding the public had shown.
"Our clients have been fantastic," Ms Smith said. "I can't tell you how nice it has been to have people ringing or popping their heads in to make sure that we're okay and coping mentally, and reassuring us that they are very keen to travel when it is safe to do."
"We've been in the Southern Highlands for more than 30 years," Ms Temple said. "We have a lot of people who are very loyal to our staff in our store; they have been very sympathetic to what's been going on, and appreciative of the job we've been doing getting their funds back to them, and keeping them informed of what's been happening with their travel arrangements."
Both travel agents urged the public to support local business here in the Highlands, whether their own or their colleagues'.
"Don't book online; don't book direct; but please book with your local travel agent," Ms Smith said. "We are all members of the community, and we spend our money in the local shops and businesses. We really need their support as much as possible to help us just stay alive."
"We've been here for the community supporting fundraisers, schools, and charities," Ms Temple said. "When they have the opportunity to consider travelling, we ask them to book with an agency. That money stays in Australia; when you use a big online company like Expedia and Booking.com, those funds go overseas.
"So bring your business to us. Let the money keep Australians in jobs, and think about supporting the people who have supported the community for the last 20 or 30 years."
- Boland Travel: Shop 11 Bowral Mall, Station Street, Bowral. Ph.: 4861 4567. Website: www.bolandtravel.com.au.
- Helloworld Travel Bowral: Shop 24/37, Wingecarribee Street, Bowral. Ph.: 4861 2888. Website: www.helloworld.com.au/store/bowral.