With more than half of APT’s travellers transiting through the Middle East, Global CEO David Cox says one of the company’s biggest decisions during the February 2026 crisis was to contact agents’ clients directly – not to replace advisors, but to support them during an unprecedented wave of disruption.
While direct communication with clients is often considered off limits in the trade, Cox said the move was designed to keep travellers informed while easing the pressure on advisors managing a surge in enquiries.
“We actually went direct to our customers to help the agents,” Cox told Travel Weekly.
“We’ve got 400 staff in Australia,” he explained, adding that many agencies only had a handful of people in the office to manage the influx of enquiries.
He acknowledged it was an unusual step.
“Usually they don’t want that,” he said. “But when it was a mass volume of impacted people, then they did.”
Cox said APT’s Australian ownership and local decision-making meant it could respond quickly while the situation was unfolding.
“We’re Australian owned, we’re an Australian-based company,” he said.
“We’re sitting here; we can make the decisions on the spot.”
Despite the disruption, Cox said Australian travellers proved remarkably resilient.
Although there was an initial wave of concern when conflict escalated, most travellers ultimately continued with their plans.
“The resilience of the Australian customers is outstanding,” he said.
“That initial reaction was, ‘Oh, hang on, what’s happening?’ But really, after that, we found all our clients that have booked through the Middle East have travelled.”
After four decades in the industry, Cox believes traveller attitudes have fundamentally changed.
“I’ve been in the game for 40 years, and there was a time where if there was a major event that occurred in Europe, things kind of shut down for six months,” he said.
“These days, if there’s major events, within a month, people move on. They didn’t used to move on so quickly.”
He believes Australians are increasingly unwilling to put travel plans on hold because of global events.
“There’s just a willingness to not sit around and wait. We’ve got to do it now. We’ve got to spend the kids’ inheritance,” he joked.
After all, if you keep delaying travel because of world events, “you’ll always be waiting.”
As for his own confidence in travelling through the region?
“I’ve been through the Middle East three times since March,” he said with a smile.
