Easing of international arrival requirements fantastic but more support needed for Travel

News that Australia is significantly easing COVID requirements for arrivals is fantastic news but, with travelling Australians relying increasingly on travel retailers, Federal Government support is desperately needed for Travel.
Peak body the Australian Federation of Travel Agents (AFTA) welcomes the overhaul of testing requirements for inbound travellers and the transition to Rapid Antigen Tests within 24 hours of arrival and reduction of wait time from 14 days to 7 days for those who catch COVID overseas.
The complexities of travel created by COVID in terms of domestic travel and differing requirements across countries mean more and more Australians are turning to travel professionals – AFTA’s most recent member survey shows 16% of bookings are from new customers who have turned to travel professionals because of the challenges of travel in these times. Additionally, 52% of bookings are re-using existing credits.
Australian travel professionals have successfully secured $8 Billion in credits and refunds for COVID-impacted travel for Australians from airlines, hotels, cruise lines, and tour operators which Australians are now looking to redeem. An estimated additional $2 Billion is outstanding and still being chased on behalf of Australians.
The survey conducted from November 2021 until January 2022[1] reinforces the anecdotal feedback that consumer and corporate travellers are increasingly reliant on Australia’s travel agents. Australia’s Travel Sector however has experienced little income for almost two years now due to the international travel ban and Federal Government support is needed to allow travel businesses to keep supporting travelling Australians.
Quotes attributable to Australian Federation of Travel Agents CEO Dean Long (who is available for interview):
“The decision to relax requirements for people coming into Australia will further encourage those Australians looking to travel internationally to do so and, with 70%-plus of international bookings made by Australians happening through travel agents, that’s a very welcome development. But, it’s an exhaustingly long runway to recovery for Australia’s travel retailers with international travel not returning to normal until well after mid-2022 and revenue only flowing to our members well after that when travel has actually taken place.”
“Confidence levels at a consumer and corporate level in making even domestic bookings let alone the more complex international bookings still remains very low and events this week have done nothing to change that. For our members, however, the work involved in helping travellers impacted by these ongoing domestic and global changes continues to ramp up.”
“Travel agents and businesses have been in hard lockdown for almost 700 days with revenue falls of 90%+ due to the importance of outbound international travel and, with no end in sight, we need the Federal Government to provide financial support so we can continue to support travelling Australians.”
“Travelling Australians need travel experts now more than ever and the percentage of all international travel out of Australia booked through travel professionals is rapidly rising from the 7 in every 10 bookings pre-COVID with an additional 16% of new bookings coming from people who haven’t used a travel agent before.”
“There’s still no clear roadmap for cruise re-opening, international and domestic air is and will be significantly constrained for some time and 53% of bookings are using existing credits which require additional support from agents for little revenue. We have lost about a third of the highly skilled professionals from our sector and as consumers look to use their credits and make new bookings, we need financial support to rebuild the skills and workforce.”
“Our ask of the Federal Government is simple – please support us so that we can keep supporting travelling Australians.”