• The death of the travel agent: Will 2021 be the year it happens?    

Excerpt from Traveller

The travel industry has been gutted by the pandemic. Bookings have fallen off a cliff, there's no product to sell, confidence among travellers is shot and there's no road map for a resumption of international travel.

"Travel was the first industry to be affected by the pandemic and will likely be the last to recover," says Don Beattie, CEO of Mobile Travel Agents. Hundreds of shopfront travel agents have shut, including some big players such as STA Travel. Under assault from online booking platforms and shrinking commissions, the death of the travel agent has been predicted for years. Could 2021 be the year it happens?

The pandemic wipeout

According to Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman Kate Carnell, in a survey of hundreds of agents conducted late in 2020, 98 per cent reported their revenue had plunged by more than 75 per cent since COVID restrictions began in March.

Liz Ellis manages Cherrybrook Travel which has been operating in Sydney's north-west since 1987. "The impact is we have no business," says Ms Ellis. "When it all started we thought it was bit doom and gloom but this is okay, international borders are shut but we can manage domestically. And then all the state borders closed, so we stopped taking bookings, then they reopened and then you get COVID hot spots and it's now turning out to be worse than we ever expected. I've got one client who booked and cancelled their holiday three times. People lose confidence."

"I've had no sales since March 2020," says Linda Forster, who operates TravLin Travel out of her home on Victoria's Mornington Peninsula. "I'm lucky in that I don't have a lot of overheads but I'm not even getting domestic sales because the borders keep changing so confidence is gone."

Major travel agencies have been buffeted by the same winds. Others have downsized, shedding jobs that might never return. According to James Kavanaugh, Managing Director Australia of Flight Centre, "Here in Australia we're operating at about 40 per cent of our employee base compared to prior year."

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