Australia: Travel agents hit hard by COVID-19 will obtain a one-off fee to assist them to keep afloat amid uncertainty about worldwide travel.
The $128 million federal scheme will ship eligible travel agents one-off funds starting from $1500 to $100,000, relying on turnover.
Federal Tourism Minister Simon Birmingham mentioned the fee recognizes many journey brokers have needed to refund present bookings whereas persevering with to work with no earnings amid uncertainty about the worldwide travel.
“Offering additional help to journey brokers within the present setting will assist maintain them afloat at a time when they’re persevering with to carry journey credit for shoppers who’ve beforehand canceled journey,” he mentioned.
Australian Federation of Travel Brokers chief govt officer Darren Rudd mentioned the help acknowledged the difficult state of affairs dealing with brokers.
“This bundle will assist to make sure the sector’s sustainability to help Australian travelers with the brand new world of COVID Safe travel,” he mentioned.
Eligible travel agents with a turnover of between $50,000 and $20 million a yr will have the ability to apply.
The one-off funds will probably be scaled, with a minimal fee of $1500 for an enterprise with a turnover of $50 000, to the most fee of $100,000 for an enterprise with a $20 million turnover.
Flight Centre Travel Group mentioned it’s awaiting specifics of the announcement but it surely seems it won’t profit considerably.
“It seems that it won’t apply to us to any vital extent, given we’re a big enterprise with company-owned shops,” a spokesman mentioned.
“This program seems to be focused extra at smaller companies, franchisees, and unbiased brokers and it will likely be enormously helpful to those that are eligible to obtain it, provided that brokers have successfully been prevented from incomes earnings whereas heavy border restrictions, each internationally and domestically, have been in place.”
The announcement comes after the boss of the journey firm Helloworld final week informed its annual common assembly final week extreme journey cancellation charges is a “burning subject”.
Chief govt Andrew Burnes acknowledged the massive charges would-be travelers are being slugged – reportedly 1000’s of {dollars} – after being pressured by the pandemic to name off their plans, however, he blamed suppliers.
He reported “challenges” around whether or not suppliers supplied credit solely or refunds and whereas most of these points had been now resolved, the size of time to get monies again from suppliers to refund them again to prospects stays a difficulty.
Australian Competitors and Shopper Fee knowledge exhibits the pandemic’s impression on journey accounted for 24,210 out of the 109,446 complaints acquired by the watchdog within the first 10 months of this yr, up 497 percent in contrast with the identical interval final yr.
Complaints it acquired through the pandemic included companies deceptive shoppers about their proper to a refund or deducting cancellation charges from refunds when there isn’t any contractual foundation to take action.
