19/03/2021
Here’s a copy of a letter written by a colleague today to the heavies in the government. It gives a clear picture of the plight of the travel agents in Australia at this time.
Hi all,
this is copy of my email to Scott Morrison, Josh Frydenberg and Dan Tehan sent this morning:
Dear Mr Frydenberg,
The vast majority of travel agents in this country are small businesses and you already know the trade employs circa 39k staff. The jobkeeper program has been a lifeline to keep staff employed. It has not helped to pay the other bills such as rent, rates communication costs, technology commitments, leasing costs, licencing fees, accountancy and legal fees and many other business expenses. It is fair to say that the cash flow boost (many month ago), state government grants and various rent relief schemes have helped to keep businesses operating. However this all comes to a grinding halt on 31st March.
The Travel Agent grants of $128m in November with a top up due soon of additional $128m, will hopefully help to see the industry through until end June but this won’t pay for the staff as well as the operational expenses.
As an industry we have refunded in excess of $6bn to customers who’s travel was curtailed because of this awful pandemic. There is still circa $4bn to process. Everyone in the travel fraternity has worked tirelessly to achieve this outcome without even a thank-you from our governments! $10bn back into the economy which could have easily been lost! If the government does not come up with an extension of Jobkeeper for the travel trade then I fear the vast majority of staff will be laid off in April because it will be unaffordable to keep them on the books. As business owner I have the fiduciary responsibility to the business.
I suggest as you have done with the Aviation industry, extend Jobkeeper for the next 7 months under the Travelkeeper name if you like. The cost for this at $500 per week per staff would total approx. $500m compared to the Government spending at least $300m having the same cohort on Centrelink plus of course the extra cost incurred to manage the resource to service such!
In real terms this means $200m extra in expenditure which reflects a meagre 2% of the $10bn this wonderful industry has managed to recover in the economy. This reward will help sustain a industry that through no fault of its own, which has had it’s busines torn from under it by border closures.
Just one final thought. When the borders reopen, Australia will need a vibrant, experienced and reliable travel trade to service the needs of millions of travellers. If the trade collapses in this country is the Government going to be happy to place their travel account in an overseas agent’s pockets?
Don’t forget, without a travel agent you’re on your own.
I hope this resonates and trust you will give this the most serious consideration and adopt such a policy to extend jobkeeper for the travel trade.
Yours sincerely
Andrew Allen
