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27 January, 2022

Travel agents’ national day of action highlights cruise industry struggle

By James Harrison

Travel operators picketed federal MP’s offices on Tuesday as part of their national day of action, which saw many in the cruise industry say their piece.

Ships were banned from entering Australia until 17 February by Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt last month in the latest in a long line of cruising bans over the past two years.

That ban marked the twenty-third cruise cancellation announcement since the rolling cruise ban began in March 2020.

The CEO of Gold Coast-based Bob Wood Cruise Group, Jay McKenzie, said the continuous cruising bans has been crippling her business.

“If we look back to November last year we had Greg Hunt, the federal minister, saying we would have cruise ships back in Australia before Christmas,” McKenzie told the ABC.

“Unfortunately, come the middle of December they decided to extend the cruise ban until February 17.

“We have a real concern that within the next three or four weeks they’re just going to roll that ban over again.”

McKenzie said that cruising is strongly linked to many different sectors of the travel industry, particularly booking agents.

“There are companies like mine which is a destination management company,” she said.

“We look after the various ships when they come into the ports along the Queensland coast and around Australia.

“We’ve got one of the largest providers of cruise ship entertainers based here. We’ve got produce growers, wineries, tour guides and they’re all based here on the Gold Coast.

“They’re all desperate for the industry to restart.”

McKenzie also told the ABC, that even if the ban were to be lifted on the 17 of February, they would not see a ship on the water until “the end of May, (or) beginning of June.”

Many workers in the travel industry have expressed concerns about the lack of support.

While there has been access to JobKeeper and targeted grants, the CEO of the Australian Federation of Travel Agents (AFTA), Dean Long, said more support was needed.

“What we are looking for is around $230 million to support the travel agents sector and the travel community,” he said.

“That’s broken up into two tranches: One a business support package which will assist in cash flow; the second part will be a skills retention package which is about $100 million to help their businesses re-engage their employees.”

Long also said that Aussies are holding more than $8 billion in international travel credits and there would be a shortage of agents to process arrangements once the time comes.

“We’ve lost over 15,000 employees through the first 24 months of this pandemic,” he said.

“Without additional support we are looking at losing another 10,000.”

The national day of action demanded the urgent introduction of the AFTA Travel Sector Skills Retention and Recovery Package and they believed that the travel industry, like other sectors in the economy, should be allowed to trade free of restrictions.

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abc afta australian federation of travel agents Bob Wood Cruise Group booking agents COVID-19 cruise industry Dean Long Greg Hunt international travel credits Jay McKenzie JobKeeper national day of action travel industry Travel operators Travel Sector Skills Retention and Recovery Package