TravelBulletin for February 2021 - Will the COVID-19 vaccines return travel to normal, government

FEBRUARY 2021

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THE GREAT VACCINE DEBATE Will the new COVID-19 vaccines be enough to return the travel and tourism industry to normal?

CONTENTS

14

COVER STORY 14 The great vaccine debate Will the new COVID-19 vaccines be enough to return the travel and tourism industry to some semblance of normalcy? Bruce Piper investigates.

MONTHLY 02 State of the industry 08 Issues and trends 20 Cruise 22 Last word

COLUMNS 02 From the publisher 08 AFTA View 21 CLIA View

20

9 This month’s contributors Joel Katz, Darren Rudd

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travelBulletin FEBRUARY 2021

1

STATE OF THE INDUSTRY

From the publisher Bruce Piper

IN BRIEF

2

THERE’S such a fine line between clever and stupid, so it is said – and I fear the travel industry’s latest desperate pleas for Government assistance may be getting very close to crossing that line.

Last month the tireless warriors in the Australian Travel Industry Lobby Group on Facebook managed to elicit some mainstream support for their cause, with networking group Small Business Australia widely circulating the results of a survey about the future of the industry.

The sensational figures, which gained strong traction in TV and newspaper reports, clearly laid out the necessity for ongoing support for the sector, but unfortunately did so by heavily promoting the notion that nine out of 10 travel agencies in the country will close on 1 April, once the current JobKeeper program winds up.

Journalists lapped up the 750 survey responses, which Small Business Australia extrapolated across an estimated 3,000 travel agencies to sensationally claim that would mean 2,600 of them would no longer exist, and in turn about

Tehan takes Tourism portfolio A MINISTERIAL reshuffle just before Christmas saw former Tourism Minister Simon Birmingham elevated to the Finance portfolio, replaced by Dan Tehan MP who has become Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment.

Tehan, who shifted across from his previous role as Education Minister, is a former diplomat with the Department of

travelBulletin FEBRUARY 2021

30,000 people will join the unemployment queue.

Putting aside the very rubbery nature of the survey – and in particular its patently unlikely implication that every one of those 2,600 agencies still employs about 12 staff – I fear that the overall outcome is likely to be counterproductive.

While it’s been great to see how much coverage the issue has generated, there has also been disquiet among some agents who have now had longstanding clients come to them asking for existing travel bookings to be refunded – so that they can go ahead and book direct with suppliers, just in case their agent is one of the many set to close.

It’s all very well to seek Government handouts, but the bottom line is that even if the largesse is extended beyond April, all it’s doing is helping businesses survive until they can start trading again.

Announcing far and wide that 90% of travel agents are unlikely to exist in the future because of COVID-19 because is not a wise thing to do when in fact, what we all need is to build consumer confidence in booking via the agent channel.

Foreign Affairs and Trade, having joined DFAT in 1995 as a graduate.

AFTA welcomed the appointment in January, saying it had provided additional opportunity to press the industry’s case for ongoing support, as well as highlight the “grave flaws” in the $128 million COVID-19 Consumer Travel Support program.

An update late last month from Tehan confirmed $33 million had already been

paid out under the grants scheme which had been “designed in consultation with the Australian Federation of Travel Agents”. Of that amount, more than half went to 168 agencies, each of which received the maximum $100,000 available per business under the scheme.

CAN’T KEEP GOOD WOMEN DOWN

TTC Australia CEO steps down FIONA Dalton, The Travel Corporation’s CEO for Australia and MD of Uniworld River Cruises, will depart the company on 2 March, just a few months after stepping into the role as the COVID-19 pandemic ground on.

Dalton said stepping down from the coveted role was “one of the most difficult career decisions I’ll ever make. However the impact of COVID-19 has irrevocably changed many of us, and for me it has ignited my desire to consider my next chapter”.

She thanked TTC Global CEO Brett Tollman for his understanding and leadership, with Tollman announcing that long-time TTC Executive Director David Hosking would take on the CEO office responsibilities.

Tollman also announced the appointment of Alice Ager as GM of Uniworld Australia.

Counsellors exits Oz TRAVEL Counsellors franchisees in Australia have this month transitioned into a new arrangement as part of the Express Travel Group, with the organisation making the difficult decision to pull out of the local market after

“

Stepping down from this coveted role and from a company as exceptional as TTC is one of the most difficult career decisions I’ll ever make

”

Fiona Dalton, outgoing CEO Australia, The Travel Corporation

TWO of the Australian travel industry’s most respected and successful business leaders have teamed up to launch “The Inspire Collective” to assist businesses regroup, pivot or refine their offering and align team cultures to continue their growth pathways.

Susan Haberle and Debra Fox, both ex APT, said “there are new opportunities for businesses in this ever-changing world,” with the Collective offering tailored solutions to deliver a competitive advantage and maximise commercial outcomes - for more details see theinspirecollective.com.au.

13 years. Travel Counsellors CEO Steve Byrne said the move was part of “a package of measures to support our long-term strategy and future growth”.

The transition agreement with Express Travel Group aims to ensure Australian Travel Counsellors will be fully supported to continue running their corporate and leisure travel businesses, with local MD Kaylene Shuttlewood and a number of the organisation’s Melbourne-based support team also moving across to Express, where CEO Tom Manwaring flagged they would become part of a new mobile division powered by the new Aeronology platform.

Qantas puts longhaul flights on sale QANTAS has optimistically opened sales for flights to the USA and UK in July, saying the move is based on its best projections of a vaccine rollout. While some have seen the move as an opportunistic grab for cash, CEO Alan Joyce doubled down on the plan when speaking at an online conference last month.

Previously QF longhaul bookings had been suspended until October this year, with the accelerated timeline described as “aligning the selling of our Continues over page travelBulletin FEBRUARY 2021

3

STATE OF THE INDUSTRY

$2.36

$15.58

Helloworld Travel <

<

4% vs 1 month ago -49% vs 1 year ago

Flight Centre

$4.96

4% vs a month ago -63% vs a year ago

$1.785

<

Regional Express

<

Webjet

3% vs 1 month ago -19% vs 1 year ago

-6% vs a month ago 53% vs a year ago

$16.68

Country of residence

Original

Country of stay

Original

New Zealand USA UK Singapore China India Hong Kong Philippines Canada Indonesia ALL VISITOR ARRIVALS

1,640 950 840 350 340 330 220 210 180 170 7,570

New Zealand UK USA China PNG India Singapore Hong Kong Indonesia France ALL RETURNS

1,780 1,600 1,340 550 540 530 450 310 290 260 13,000

% change - original Nov 19/ Nov 20 -98.6 -98.7 -98.8 -99.3 -99.7 -99.1 -99.0 -98.2 -99.1 -98.9 -99.1

Source: ABS

Source: ABS

Qantas

-66

0% vs a month ago -28% vs a year ago

.0 %

.9 % -66.8%

Source: ASX

DOMESTIC AIR MARKET

-70

November 2020

.0%

-6 9 -7 1.1 %

.0 %

Growth % -63.2 -63.6 -58.8 -9.5* -52.2

%

5.26m 6.02bn 7.18bn 83.8 52.6

Growth Year end Year end Nov 19 Nov 20 % 1.11m -79.0 61.28m 22.52m 1.23bn -79.6 71.38bn 25.96bn 1.98bn -72.4 88.56bn 36.51bn 62.0 -21.8* 80.6 71.1 20.6 -68.8 636.3 304.2

-53.7

Total pax carried Revenue pax km (RPK) Avail seat kms (ASK) Load factor (%) Aircraft trips (000)

Nov 20

-66.8%

Nov 19

-6 8

INTERNATIONAL AIR MARKET SHARE

Share of passengers carried – November 2020

HEADLINES

Qatar Airways, 23.9%

15 Jan 18 Jan 19 Jan 20 Jan 21 Jan 22 Jan 22 Jan 27 Jan 28 Jan 29 Jan

No budging on grants Jetstar slashes agent pay Industry furious at border comments CHOICE targets travel Suki debuts in the market Emirates returns to SYD, MEL and BNE More than $33m paid out in grant scheme ACCC steps up advice Queensland agency seeks relief IATA: get jab, no quarantine

Singapore Airlines, 12.1%

Etihad Airways, 2.4% China Eastern Airlines, 3.2%

Air New Zealand, 11.7%

Cathay Pacific Airways, 3.8% Xiamen Airlines, 4.0% United Airlines, 5.0%

INTERNATIONAL AIR ROUTES

Top 10 city pairs, year end November 2020 City pair

Others, 26.9%

Labor blasts grant scheme Qantas flags July return Grant BAS changes blocked Tehan defends grant bungle Borders slam spending Virgin Australia credit clampdown WTTC slams compulsory travel vax Cox & Kings administrators quit Project Sunrise still on cards for Qantas Fiona Dalton steps down as TTC Aus CEO

.0 %

-66.3% -65.5%

*Percentage points difference

Source: BITRE

04 Jan 05 Jan 05 Jan 07 Jan 08 Jan 09 Jan 12 Jan 13 Jan 14 Jan 15 Jan

% change - original Nov 19/ Nov 20 -98.5 -95.6 -98.3 -99.0 -93.2 -98.6 -98.9 -97.9 -99.8 -95.6 -98.5

-72

-3% vs 1 month ago -19% vs 1 year ago

Top 10 destinations, November 2020

$4.81 <

Corporate Travel Management

RESIDENT RETURNS

Top 10 destinations, November 2020

<

AS WIDELY expected, Health Minister Greg Hunt extended the existing Government

VISITOR ARRIVALS

Sourced 22 Jan 2021

<

Ban in place to March

TRAVEL COMPANIES ASX SHARE PRICE

<

PUBLICLY listed nib Limited has confirmed the demise of the longstanding SureSave Travel Insurance brand, which was last month formally incorporated into the overall nib Travel umbrella. nib Travel CEO Anna

”

Deputy Prime Minister and Transport Minister Michael McCormack

DATA ROOM

<

SureSave to become nib travel insurance

“

Decisions about when international travel resumes will be made by the Australian Government

Human Biosecurity Emergency Declaration in December, with the measure meaning the various provisions such as cruise ship bans and international border closures are now in place until 17 March.

That will mean the emergency period has been in place for a full 12 months, with Hunt saying the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee had advised that “the international COVID19 situation continues to pose an unacceptable public health risk”.

It’s expected that the measure will be further extended again, although there are industry hopes that the earlier than expected rollout of COVID-19 vaccines in Australia may accelerate a return to normality.

Hunt had forecast that COVID-19 inoculations could start late this month, with up to four million Australians vaccinated by late March.

<

international services to reflect our expectation that international travel will begin to restart from July 2021”.

Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack issued a quick smack-down to QF’s optimism, noting that the international border would only fully reopen once COVID-19 was no longer considered a public health risk. “Decisions about when international travel resumes will be made by the Australian Government,” he pontificated.

Gladman said existing SureSave reseller partners would transition to a unified nib Travel platform, but noted the same support team would be on hand.

The company has also launched new policies offering coverage for COVIDrelated events, such as overseas medical costs and some coronavirus-linked cancellation and quarantine expenses – along with a special provision for cancellation coverage for healthcare, aged care and law enforcement staff if they are required to return to work.

Gladman said the new policies aimed to help give people the confidence to book holidays and “get the global tourism industry back on its feet”.

<<

Continues from previous page

Emirates, 11.1%

Auckland-Sydney Singapore-Melbourne Singapore-Sydney Auckland-Melbourne Singapore-Perth Hong Kong-Sydney Auckland-Brisbane Los Angeles-Sydney Singapore-Brisbane Dubai-Sydney Top 10 City Pairs Other City Pairs ALL CITY PAIRS

Passengers YE Nov 19 1,599,655 1,631,809 1,523,459 1,239,848 1,121,780 1,200,531 954,407 910,218 955,981 767,376 11,905,064 30,514,900 42,419,964

Passengers YE Nov 20 539,373 471,880 471,865 427,929 372,066 324,863 305,632 302,405 286,575 261,084 3,763,672 9,498,094 13,261,766

% of total % change 20/19 4.1 -66.3 3.6 -71.1 3.6 -69.0 3.2 -65.5 2.8 -66.8 2.4 -72.9 2.3 -68.0 2.3 -66.8 2.2 -70.0 2.0 -66.0 28.4 -68.4 71.6 -68.9 100.0 -68.7

Source: BITRE

China Southern Airlines, 6.9% Source: BITRE

4

travelBulletin FEBRUARY 2021

travelBulletin FEBRUARY 2021

5

STATE OF THE INDUSTRY AUSTRALIAN AIRPORTS

AUSTRALIAN CONSUMER SPEND ON TRAVEL: NEWS CORP AUSTRALIA INDEX

International passengers through Australia’s major international airports, November 2020

(a) Scheduled passenger services commenced Dec ‘18 (b) Scheduled services (seasonal) recommenced Nov ‘18 (c) Scheduled services ceased May ‘17 and recommenced Sep ‘19

(d) Seasonal services only (e) Scheduled services ceased Sep ‘18

-84 -81 -82 -78 -75 -73 -75 -77 -78 -72 -69 -65 -66 -52 -50 -56 -57 -68 -62 -67 -69

0

-20

-60

-80

21 D ec 28 D ec 04 J an 11 J an

-40

07 D ec 14 D ec

Passengers % of total % change YE Nov 20 20/19 5,340,178 40.3 -68.4 3,489,495 26.3 -69.1 1,989,613 15.0 -68.9 1,396,504 10.5 -67.9 348,530 2.6 -68.8 306,047 2.3 -67.2 171,609 1.3 -73.9 119,985 0.9 -70.9 69,594 0.5 -72.7 19,936 0.2 -76.6 6,742 0.1 +0.0 2,397 0.0 -73.3 1,136 0.0 +53.1 .. .. .. .. .. ..

13,261,766 100.0 -68.7

23 N ov 30 N ov

Passengers YE Nov 19 Sydney 16,891,807 Melbourne 11,292,307 Brisbane 6,387,534 Perth 4,356,004 Adelaide 1,118,407 Gold Coast 933,741 Cairns 658,307 Avalon (a) 412,332 Darwin 254,952 Canberra 85,023 Newcastle (b) 6,742 Port Hedland 8,982 Norfolk Island (c) 742 Sunshine Coast (d) 13,084 Townsville (e) ..

ALL AIRPORTS 42,419,964

24 A ug 31 A ug 07 S ep 14 S ep 21 S ep 28 S ep 05 O ct 12 O ct 19 O ct 26 O ct 02 N ov 09 N ov 16 N ov

City

Source: News Corp

-100

Source: BITRE

DOMESTIC AIRPORTS

DOMESTIC AIRFARES

Domestic passenger movements, November 2020 Airport Sydney Melbourne Brisbane Perth Adelaide Gold Coast Cairns Canberra Hobart Townsville TOTAL TOP TEN AIRPORTS TOTAL DOMESTIC NETWORK

Passengers YE Nov 19 (000) 27,543.6 25,955.9 17,531.5 8,260.9 7,384.7 5,547.9 4,164.7 3,141.9 2,777.1 1,658.2 103,966.5 122,556.5

Passengers YE Nov 20 (000) 9,156.7 7,998.6 7,103.1 3,401.0 2,750.3 1,854.2 1,742.3 1,033.4 1,019.7 814.6 36,874.1 45,045.5

% of total 20.3 17.8 15.8 7.6 6.1 4.1 3.9 2.3 2.3 1.8 81.9 100.0

Real domestic airfare index, July 2003 = 100

% change 20/19 -66.8 -69.2 -59.5 -58.8 -62.8 -66.6 -58.2 -67.1 -63.3 -50.9 -64.5 -63.2

Survey month January 2020 February 2020 March 2020 April 2020 May 2020 June 2020 July 2020 August 2020 September 2020 October 2020 November 2020 December 2020 January 2021

Source: BITRE

Business fare 81.6 79.1 81.6 100.3 90.6 91.4 83.2 96.3 88.9 92.0 77.7 70.2 70.5

Restricted Economy fare 100.5 101.4 101.8 114.5 115.5 116.2 106.2 109.6 109.7 108.8 105.5 100.8 100.6

Best discount % 61.3 62.2 83.5 85.5 84.4 91.9 74.9 81.5 79.7 75.6 80.4 78.9 66.5

Source: BITRE

MAIN DOMESTIC ROUTES Top 10 domestic city pairs, November 2020

%

-47 .1 -4

5 .8

-42

- 3 9.1 %

.

%

2%

.4 %

-67.1 %

-5 3

21

-63.4 %

. 1%

-6 3.5%

.2 -6 9

%

-

City pair

Melbourne-Sydney Brisbane-Sydney Brisbane-Cairns Adelaide-Sydney Brisbane-Townsville Brisbane-Mackay Adelaide-Brisbane Brisbane-Perth Ballina-Sydney Karratha-Perth ALL CITY PAIRS Source: BITRE

©FreeVectorMaps

6

travelBulletin FEBRUARY 2021

Nurture your return.

Passengers Passengers % change YE Nov 19 YE Nov 20 (000) (000) 9,172.0

2,823.6

-69.2

4,819.4 1,291.2 1,880.7 1,011.9 770.7 871.2 954.2 433.8 460.8 61,278.2

1,587.6 746.3 688.6 535.7 417.4 406.3 347.9 342.4 280.8 22,522.7

-67.1 -42.2 -63.4 -47.1 -45.8 -53.4 -63.5 -21.1 -39.1 -63.2

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ISSUES & TRENDS

IT’S SUKI TO REALLY WANT THIS TOOL

AFTA VIEW Darren Rudd, Chief Executive Officer Australian Federation of Travel Agents

IT HAS been a busy start to the new year. The AFTA team and I have been busily working away in the background across a range of areas.

An absolute key priority remains working with the government on the travel support package. To that end, I am happy to announce that we have a series of meetings with key Cabinet Ministers including the Tourism Minister this week.

We are acutely aware of our members’ concerns across arrange of areas including the policy construct, the amounts within tiering levels, and structural imbalance based on the ambiguity of the G1 BAS statement definition.

Additionally, an extension of a version of JobKeeper for our sector is also high on the agenda for discussion in Canberra this week following on from our messaging across national TV, print and radio last week.

We appreciate that JobKeeper may take on a new name and form, but the underlying intention, to ensure travel agents can continue to repatriate the outstanding $4 billion in consumer travel funds, remains unchanged. It’s about providing a life-line to help businesses survive until borders are liberated.

It is also worth noting that AFTA has been collaborating with the ACCC in a purposeful and constructive way, and the efforts of this cooperation is resulting in more immediate and real benefit.

In late December, the ACCC updated their website with some key additions that will assist members by providing consumers with a more balanced and realistic approach to manage their expectations.

Specifically, this change relates to whether or not consumers are entitled to a refund for travel bookings cancelled due to government restrictions will depend on the terms and conditions of their booking. The information can be found HERE. I encourage all members to please read the email communications that AFTA disseminates on a regular basis and visit our website to ensure that you remain informed about the work AFTA is undertaking to ensure the survival of the sector and how it relates to you and your business. Stay tuned as we develop a road map of webinars commencing this month to keep our members up-to-date.

8

travelBulletin FEBRUARY 2021

TJAPUKAI CLOSES DOWN FOR GOOD AFTER more than 33 years of operation, the Tjapukai Aboriginal Cultural Park in Cairns closed its doors after buckling under the pressure of the international travel shutdown.

The once popular attraction provided tourists with an invaluable insight into Australia’s first people and their way of life, however, with many of its core visitors coming from international markets, was forced to close permanently.

Tjapukai employed about 65 staff members, most being Indigenous, and was a particularly cruel blow for tourism in North Queensland which had already lost millions in revenue from the closed borders.

TTIH offers new memberships THE Travel Industry Hub (TTIH) has launched a new online community and membership structure for 2021.

For a $49 annual subscription fee, members will be able to join the travel & tourism-dedicated community, along with member-only webinars, access to an industry event calendar, discounts, updates and offers from industry partners, priority invites to paid events & workshops, and discounts on use of The Travel Industry Hub. Partners & suppliers can also join under a company membership tier.

WHEN describing his new business venture to travelBulletin, Suki founder Campbell Harris is quick to make sure travel agents are crystal clear on what the product is not.

“Suki is not a booking engine, it is purely a content search aggregation hub,” he emphasises, characterising the new platform as an exciting new way for advisors to save lots of time and become more efficient at a minimum of cost.

Launching to the market only last month, Suki offers the Australian travel trade more than 10,000 tours across land, river and ocean cruises from all over the world, all in the one place, driven by a powerful and intuitive search engine that can be triaged across price, availability, location and trip type, to name just a few.

“No other company in the world does that at the moment, there are some cruise aggregators and there are some tour aggregators, but nobody actually does all three for the B2B market,” Harris enthuses.

Suki has been introduced

“

No other company in the world does that at the moment, there are some cruise aggregators and there are some tour aggregators, but nobody actually does all three for the B2B market

”

Campbell Harris, Founder, Suki

specifically with the challenges of remote and traditional bricks and mortar agents in mind, offering a valuable “add-on” assistance tool that can work in tandem with any booking platforms agents are already using.

“Agents can continue to book their trips and cruises how ever they book them now, they can continue to use the booking software or the CRM software they currently have because we know most agents already have that tech in place,” Harris said.

Beyond its unique search aggregation capabilities, Suki also offers users results that link together land, river and ocean itineraries that can be quoted in a combined price, taking the leg work out of the typical brochure searching and numerous Campbell Harris, phone calls to founder of Suki operators that agents might usually need to engage in to get the best information for their clients.

But Harris explains that Suki’s search and quote tech is just part of the Suki story, with the platform also offering its own social chat ecosystem where agents can compare notes with each other all over the world to find the best product and deals

for clients, as well as a range of other bells and whistles designed to make advisors even more of a travel expert.

These include access to stats and emerging trends in destinations globally, supplier reviews, custom search filtering, maps for all itineraries, and sharing functionality that enables trips to be circulated to clients in either hard copy or digital formats.

Suki can also be branded to the needs of each individual user, offering customisable colours and logos for agents so they can simply swing their screens around and share details directly with clients.

Suki is currently free to use until 30 June, at which time it will cost $10 a month to access.

ISSUES & TRENDS

SUN YET TO SET ON SUNRISE

GRANTS PROGRAM SAGA GOVERNMENT policy is always a blunt instrument – a reality which became crystal clear to Australia’s travel agent community in early December when details of the highly anticipated COVID19 Consumer Travel Support Program were announced.

Initially greeted with elation, as the outcome of months of desperate grass-roots lobbying, the acclamation soon turned to angst as advocates highlighted a range of issues around how the scheme was being implemented.

To the Government’s credit, the rollout of the scheme was at light speed, with a full submission process put in place within two weeks of the $128 million program’s announcement. But that was when the rubber hit the road, as it became clear that wide disparities in how the industry lodged its Business Activity Statements (BAS) would result in similar divergences in the amounts paid out under the scheme.

In order to simplify access to the money, the tiered program was based on the “Total Sales” figure which is included in an entry labelled G1 on BAS returns. Unfortunately – and understandably – some in the industry have always included their gross TTV

10

travelBulletin FEBRUARY 2021

here – while others have apparently correctly instead recorded their actual agency revenue. And because this figure is basically a statistical collection by the Government, rather than actually impacting tax payable, others haven’t bothered to put anything in the G1 box, meaning their payments under the grants scheme equated to nothing at all.

The issues meant that a typical travel agency, turning over say $4.5 million in total sales (i.e. commission revenue of $450,000 based on average industry returns) might receive either $100,000, or $11,000, or zero. Suggestions that the industry should be pleased to be getting anything at all were derided by many travel agents, and eventually even AFTA agreed that the program was “deeply flawed”.

this crucial G1 figure – and those who managed to do it quickly and lodge their grant applications before Christmas will have received much more than was intended under the scheme. However as soon as bureaucrats returned to work after the holiday break, an amendment to the program swiftly closed this loophole – presumably because they realised that the $128 million wouldn’t stretch nearly as far as they had hoped.

Compounding matters was a planned IT upgrade on a key part of the grants application portal for almost two weeks over the holiday period – and despite protestations from AFTA and other lobbyists to authorities high and low, it now appears extremely unlikely that anything will change. The hamfisted confusion has led to finger-

“

Suggestions that the industry should be pleased to be getting anything at all were derided by many travel agents, and eventually even AFTA agreed that the program was “deeply flawed”

”

In the early stages of the program’s rollout there was much social media chatter and even advice from some head offices about whether it was possible to retrospectively amend

pointing left, right and centre, but it now appears it may be best for the industry to move on to pushing for an extension to the JobKeeper program as the next front for influencing the Government.

DESPITE facing the toughest challenge in its history, Qantas chief Alan Joyce continues to point to signs of health and vitality for the company down the track, most recently hinting that the airline’s much touted Project Sunrise is still very much on the table.

Joyce made the comments during a Reuters Next conference last month, telling attendees the carrier’s ambition to launch longhaul services from Australia to in-demand destinations like London and New York was alive and well, and could be introduced toward the back end of this year.

“Hopefully, by the end of 2021, we can revisit [Project Sunrise] and look at what is the appropriate time to start,” he said.

“The balance sheet takes priority, but we think you can do that and repair the balance sheet at the same time,” Joyce added.

Qantas put Project Sunrise preparations officially on hold in May last year, pulling the plug on the purchase of 12 Airbus A3501000s at the last minute to batten down the hatches and deal with the worst of the pandemic.

While sharing some optimistic planning news, Joyce also lamented the business had been knocked back by about three months in its recovery plans due to the latest COVID clusters and subsequent travel restrictions.

S Built for travel advisors, Suki makes you cleverer.

suki.travel Instant access to pricing & availability for thousands of tours, river cruises & ocean cruises around the world.

ISSUES & TRENDS

NEW ZEALAND EMPOWERS AGENTS TO CONVERT SALES WITH NEW MARKETING HUB TOURISM New Zealand has recently unveiled a new marketing hub for Australian travel agents, designed to make it easier than ever to sell the destination.

The 100% Pure New Zealand Marketing Hub offers a range of professionally-designed and customisable marketing tools, to enable agents to capitalise on opportunities to convert sales.

Travel agents can find 100% Pure New Zealand brand materials, as well as specific marketing campaigns such as the current “Messages from New Zealand” initiative.

The hub includes assets such as videos, emails, social posts, web banners, digital advertisements, sales flyers, images and articles, with much of the material able to be customised to include agent’s own sales message, promotional package offers, contact information

and branding.

Tourism New Zealand has also listened to agents and has a range of assets with themed travel experiences including luxury, food & wine, wildlife, adventure, maori culture, great outdoors, romance & relaxation, family/multi-gen travel and road trips, with more to come in the future.

The Marketing Hub will also include supplier partner offers.

According to Tourism New Zealand’s Head of Trade Australia Sandra Etter, the Hub will “arm [travel professionals] with the right tools to masterfully engage with their customers and tell relevant New Zealand stories”.

“These carefully curated tools aim to help build brand love and keep New Zealand top of mind for future travellers,” said Etter.

“Pre-COVID, Australians made up over 40% of international arrivals

WE’LL HELP YOU SELL NEW ZEALAND Customisable assets and resources to inspire your clients

Agents can access material from Tourism New Zealand’s latest campaigns, including the current “Messages from New Zealand”

to New Zealand.

“Australia’s close relationship with New Zealand makes it an important market to keep preference high.

“Despite the changes in travel, consideration remains high with 70% of active considerers fully supportive of the travel bubble,” Etter enthused.

The Marketing Hub is only available to Australian agents currently, but Tourism New Zealand plans to roll out the assets to other markets in 2021.

Agents looking to swot up on their knowledge of New Zealand can also find recordings of previous webinars covering topics from Tools, Resources and New Zealand 101 to crafting itineraries around adventure, sustainability, romance and more.

CLICK HERE to sign up for the new Marketing Hub.

Produced in collaboration with Tourism New Zealand

The new 100% Pure New Zealand Marketing Hub will help to inspire your clients to choose New Zealand for their next international holiday. Inside the hub you’ll find a library of customisable marketing assets. Assets are organised by interests and themes to allow you to create marketing material tailored to your clients’ desires with branding that is tailored to your business.

Visit marketinghub.newzealand.com to start customising your New Zealand marketing materials

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travelBulletin FEBRUARY 2021

COVER

THE GREAT VACCINE DEBATE The virulence of the coronavirus pandemic has kept borders around the world slammed firmly shut, and while we’re all glad 2020 is over, it now appears possible that the coming year will show little significant improvement - unless the much hoped-for COVID-19 vaccines manage to stop the virus in its microscopic tracks. But in a world of conspiracy theorists, where some parts of the population won’t even have their children immunised against horrific diseases like polio, will enough people be vaccinated against COVID-19 to allow travel and tourism to return to any semblance of normalcy? Bruce Piper investigates the possible post-coronavirus future.

W

ITH a torrid 2020 in the rear view mirror, there appeared to be a glimmer of hope for a brighter new year for the Australian travel sector in the weeks leading up to Christmas.

While long-haul international travel remained firmly off the agenda as COVID-19 infection rates soared in Europe, the UK and the USA, locally we all felt a little bit of pride and optimism as state borders

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finally started to come down.

Domestic flight bookings boomed in the lead-up to the traditional Christmas holiday period, and there was just a little bit more certainty among those making reservations that they would actually be able to make their long-deferred trips. There was talk of a trans-Tasman bubble emerging early in 2021, as well as discussions about opening up reciprocal travel arrangements with

be among the first to get the jab.

Finally, we thought, we are getting on top of this scourge.

Meanwhile, as desperate authorities in the Northern Hemisphere rapidly approved new vaccines to handle the pandemic, we all collectively felt a sense of hope and self-satisfaction, that while Australia was well positioned in terms of its own immunisation program, and the rigorous trials that had been already conducted leading to the approvals, the jabs would also in fact be well-tested on those people in other far-off countries before we were able to use it.

other countries seeing similar low infection rates like Japan, Taiwan and South Korea - and even the dream of a holiday somewhere in the Pacific.

On top of all that, Health Minister Greg Hunt, ever cautious about raising expectations, confirmed that Australia was on track to roll out its planned COVID-19 vaccination program ahead of schedule. Some reports cited immunisations starting as early as February, with hopes that up to four million Australians could be inoculated by April. His announcement came with some actual facts - a full schedule of priorities listing those who would

BUT ARE VACCINES THE ANSWER? HOWEVER as the new year rolled around - amid new lockdowns related initially to the Avalon outbreak in Sydney and then rolling out to new infections in Queensland and the arrival of more virulent strains of COVID19, that brief moment of a brighter dawn dissipated like the morning dew. Once again the ham-fisted, haphazard imposition of restrictions slammed down on the travel and tourism sector and put paid to any expectations that consumers might start booking with any certainty.

But still, the promise of the vaccine kept hope nurtured in many industry hearts - and

travelBulletin FEBRUARY 2021

15

COVER whatever happens any successful immunisation against COVID-19 will be an improvement. However as the harsh reality of the new year sinks in, it’s appearing less and less likely to be the travel panacea we were all hoping for. Indeed, based on recent ill-considered comments by former Chief Medical Officer Brendan Murphy, borders may not open to any significant extent until 2022 - although in the next breath he reiterated the ongoing uncertainty of the pandemic which meant the Government effectively only had a month or two’s insight into the future.

We all wait with bated breath for more clarity, but in the meantime it is also helpful to take stock of the landscape so we can get a realistic view of what international travel may look like in the future. With a huge variety of inoculation regimes in different countries around the

globe, there are some significant hurdles to be leapt in order to be assured that the mass movement of people across borders continues to be safe.

SHOULD VACCINES BE COMPULSORY? WE DO live in the lucky country, and despite their imperfections it appears that so far the approach taken by our political leaders have helped Australia to a large extent avoid the carnage wrought

by COVID-19 across the northern hemisphere. When Prime Minister Scott Morrison and other leaders unveiled Australia’s vaccination plans, he noted that the jabs would be voluntary, but then later added that the rollout would be “as mandatory as you could possibly make it”. Health Minister Greg Hunt has also made pains to

stress that the vaccination program would be available universally, at no charge, to the entire population. But he also noted that the immunisations would be “voluntary and free,” gently adding: “we encourage people to have the vaccine to protect themselves and their family”.

No such niceties about opting into the vaccine were observed

by Qantas CEO Alan Joyce, who in late November announced the seemingly eminently sensible policy that international air travellers were likely to have to prove that they had been vaccinated against COVID-19 in order to board QF flights. He confirmed that the carrier was looking closely at updating its terms and conditions of carriage.

“We will ask people to have a vaccination before they can get on the aircraft...for international

“

The arguments against mandatory vaccination also make little sense when you consider that for some countries immunisations against other conditions are also a requirement for travel

”

Planned Australian rollout of Covid-19 Vaccines Phase 1a - up to 1.4m doses • Quarantine and border workers • Frontline health care worker sub-groups for prioritisation • Aged care and disability care staff • Aged care and disability care residents

Phase 1b - up to 14.8m doses • Elderly adults aged 80 years and over

Phase 2a - up to 15.8m doses

• Elderly adults aged 70-79 years

• Adults aged 60-69 years

• Other health care workers

• Adults aged 50-59 years

• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island people > 55 • Younger adults with an underlying medical condition, including those with a disability • Critical and high risk workers including defence, police, fire, emergency services and meat processing

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• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island people 18-54 • Other critical and high risk workers

Phase 2b - up to 16m doses • Balance of adult population

Phase 3 - up to 13.6m doses • Under 18 if recommended

visitors coming out and people leaving the country we think that’s a necessity,” he said.

Interestingly, while the Qantas chief was the first to make such an outspoken statement, he certainly implied that his counterparts across the globe were likely to take a similar approach. But others have been slow to follow - perhaps due to an immediate uproar about the proposed Qantas approach.

That included a statement from UK-based tour operator Tradewinds Travel which said that following Joyce’s statements “we decided as a company that we would no longer offer Qantas flights to our customers”. The travel company noted that while it was just a relatively small business compared to QF, “we feel that bodily autonomy with regard to medical intervention is a personal choice and not something to be forced onto people by business. We are not anti-vaccination but we are prochoice. There is a huge difference between coercion and making a free choice,” Tradewinds said.

Cruise lines similarly have been slow to assert whether they plan to make pre-voyage vaccinations compulsory, with the exception of Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings CEO Frank Del Rio, who has confirmed that the company is looking into whether it has the “legal standing to mandate that you take a vaccine to come aboard”.

Del Rio has also absolutely stated that vaccination against COVID-19 will definitely be compulsory for Norwegian Cruise Lines, Oceania Cruises and Regent Seven Seas Cruises crew.

There is no doubt that much of the travel and tourism sector would side with the Qantas and NCLH approach, but apparently not the World Travel and Tourism Council, whose CEO Gloria Guevara

also came out strongly against mandating vaccination for travel.

At an online conference last month she likened forcing people to have vaccinations to “workplace discrimination”. Clearly unaware of the situation in Australia where minimal community transmission has seen almost every case of COVID-19 ultimately linked to an international arrival, she claimed that onboard protocols and air filtration on planes meant there was “less chance of catching COVID in a plane than a supermarket”. Indeed, a recent study conducted by the New Zealand Department of Health showed incontrovertible proof via genomic sequencing that a number of passengers aboard a sociallydistanced, almost empty inbound long-haul aircraft had contracted the virus from another traveller during their 14-hour flight to Auckland from the Middle East.

The arguments against mandatory vaccination also make little sense when you consider that for some countries immunisations against other conditions are also a requirement for travel - such as Yellow Fever vaccination certificates which are compulsory for entry to a number of countries in Africa and South America. This is a significant precedent for mandating COVID-19 vaccination - because after all, travel is not compulsory or a right, and those who are opposed to the jab can simply choose not to go overseas.

There are also many occupations where having particular vaccinations are a condition of employment, and in terms of overall community health surely it should be about the issue of the greater good - similar to other major public health issues like having running water and sewerage systems to avoid disease in our communities.

travelBulletin FEBRUARY 2021

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COVER A NEW TYPE OF PASSPORT?

Sinopharm

THERE are literally hundreds of COVID-19 vaccines under development at breakneck pace, with about nine already approved and being deployed across the globe.

The projects are being conducted thanks to billions of dollars of research funding provided by governments, such as former US President Trump’s Project Warp Speed which poured money into developing a solution to the pandemic. While each country undergoes its own certification and approval processes to protect its local population, the issue of international travel is compounded by a requirement that each nation recognise the efficacy of vaccines provided in other jurisdictions.

To that end the International Air Transport Association is among several organisations working on digitally-enabled ways to facilitate travel in a post-coronavirus world.

IATA’s Travel Pass initiative aims to give border authorities confidence that they are effectively mitigating the risk of importing COVID-19.

The digital platform recognises the current major challenges to accurate health information, including the complexity and variety of COVID-19 testing and immunisation procedures, and the possibility of inefficiencies, errors and fraud.

“The main priority is to get people travelling again safely. In the immediate term that means establishing confidence in governments that systematic pre-departure COVID-19 testing can work as a replacement for quarantine requirements,” IATA said, perhaps somewhat optimistically given the prevalence of COVID-19.

Unfortunately at the moment the only thing that is certain about the future is that it is uncertain.

Notwithstanding that, the world’s best brains are focused on solving the COVID-19 problem.

Progress is being made every month, and having proven that the industry is resilient enough to recover from other massive shocks, like the 9/11 attacks in 2001, aircraft crashes and other pandemics, those with a “glass half full” attitude are likely to see their optimism rewarded. Let’s hope so.

Vaccine type Country of Origin Efficacy* Approved for use in

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Pfizer/BioNTech Vaccine type Country of Origin Efficacy* Doses ordered by Australia Approved for use in

Inactivated vaccine China 79.34%^ China, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Egypt

^86% efficacy reported by UAE

mRNA-based vaccine Multinational 95% 10 million UK, Bahrain, Canada, Mexico, US, Singapore, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Jordan, Panama, Chile, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Argentina, Switzerland, Kuwait, EU

Moderna Vaccine type Country of Origin Efficacy* Approved for use in

Vaccines approved for use around the world

mRNA-based vaccine USA 94.5% US, Canada, EU, Israel, UK, France, Switzerland

Sinovac Vaccine type Country of Origin Efficacy* Approved for use in

*Efficacy based on preliminary data

Inactivated vaccine China 50.40% China, Turkey

Oxford/AstraZeneca Covaxin Vaccine type Country of Origin Efficacy* Approved for use in

Inactivated vaccine India Not published India

Sputnik V Vaccine type Country of Origin Efficacy* Approved for use in

Non-replicating viral vector Russia 92% Russia, Palestine

Vaccine type Country of Origin Efficacy* Doses ordered by Australia Approved for use in

Adenovirus vaccine UK average 70.4% # 53.8 million UK, India, Argentina, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Mexico, Morocco

# Two separate efficacy rates as result of accidental dosages

travelBulletin FEBRUARY 2021

19

CRUISE

NORWEGIAN’S NEW REWARDS TO SIMPLIFY SELLING NORWEGIAN Cruise Line wants to “simplify and standardise” the way it recognises its top partners, and reconnect with those still ready to sell cruise, Director of Sales Australia/New Zealand Damian Borg has told travelBulletin.

Revealing more details about Norwegian’s new Partners First Rewards program, which is designed to recompense travel advisors for booking with the cruise line, Borg said NCL had placed a greater focus on formalising a more structured program, to make it easier for consultants to engage.

“The one big difference with this program when compared to other incentives we’ve put in place is we’re asking agents to register for the awards program themselves,” Borg explained.

“The biggest challenge we have right now is we don’t know who’s open, who’s closed, who’s on reduced hours, who’s out there, we don’t know who we’re talking to anymore.

“By registering they become eligible to earn points on bookings they make and be rewarded for those points they log into the system,” he said.

Borg added Norwegian would recognise wholesale bookings and would host an annual awards event each year to acknowledge top advisors, as well as hosting a new incentive every month.

He said Norwegian would hold the first of the 20

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Norwegian Spirit will commence her inaugural Australian season in December this year.

“

We had so many passionate partners who went out of their way to deliver a result for us and come up with some creative ways to ensure their guests know they’re still open for business... if we can reward that in a small way for what they did in 2020 then we’re happy to do so

”

Damian Borg, Director of Sales Australia/New Zealand, Norwegian Cruise Line

Azamara sold off

acknowledgement events early next year, which would highlight each state’s highestvolume sellers, top-selling consultants, best marketing supporters and more.

To appreciate the efforts of travel advisors last year, Norwegian will also host a recognition of its best supporting partners from 2020 toward the end of March.

With a list of categories and award-winners soon to be finalised, Borg explained the appreciation would centre on engagement, passion, and supportiveness, as opposed to revenue.

“We had so many passionate partners who went out of their way to deliver a result for us and come up with some creative ways to ensure their guests know they’re still open for business, and that’s what we need right now,” Borg said.

“We need travel agents, and if we can reward that in a small way for what they did in 2020 then we’re happy to do so.”

Suggesting a measure of positivity, Borg added Norwegian had done a “hell of a lot” to improve its industry standing over the past 12 months, which had reflected back on the cruise line of late. “[2022 and 2023] are the crux, they’re up with 90% of what we’re booking at the moment,” he said.

“We’re much better forward sold for [2022] than we ever were for future years, so there’s some green shoots.”

PRIVATE equity company Sycamore Partners has entered into a definitive agreement with Royal Caribbean Group to purchase cruise line Azamara.

The transaction is worth US$210 million, and will see Sycamore acquire the entire Azamara brand, including its three-ship fleet and associated intellectual property.

The new buyers are confident of the future of the brand, wasting no time and announcing the additional purchase of Carnival Corporation’s Pacific Princess, which will be fully renovated.

Ponant New Zealand sailings approved FOLLOWING months of engagement with New Zealand’s Ministry of Health, Ponant recently received the green light to commence its luxury expeditions in the country.

Sailing with its 3-shield COVIDsafe protocol it has been utilising for the past six months, Le Laperouse will recommence operations exclusively for New Zealanders in February, with a 14-night Chatham Islands & Subantarctic Islands expedition itinerary.

Riviera appoints TTW JUST 12 months after appointing Cruise Traveller as its exclusive Australian general sales agent, European cruise line Riviera Travel River Cruises has switched its local representation to Travel The World (TTW).

Riviera Channel Director Stuart Milan said Travel The World was appointed to take the cruise line to the “next level” in Australia’s highly competitive cruise market.

CLIA VIEW

Joel Katz, Managing Director CLIA Australasia

AGENT TRAINING IS CRITICAL TO RECOVERY AS THE cruise industry works hard to forge a responsible pathway towards resumption, one of our most important tasks is to support travel agents and other industry stakeholders to ensure they are a key part of our recovery.

As part of this, CLIA has just launched an important education tool as part of our Learning Academy. It’s called Cruise Dynamics, our annual recertification elective, and this year it focuses on the extensive new health measures cruise lines have committed to globally in response to the pandemic.

Even as CLIA continues to outline these health measures to governments and health authorities, travel agents can now gain a thorough understanding of how cruise lines will operate in the future and the lengths they’ve gone to in order to uphold the health and safety of their guests.

Cruise Dynamics will be a key resource for agents as they prepare for the resumption of cruising and learn how to give reassurance to their

clients. It explains important initiatives including the rigorous screening, testing, distancing, and sanitation measures that CLIA cruise lines have committed to worldwide.

As our recertification elective, this course must be completed by agents who hold any level of CLIA accreditation in order to renew their certificate. But in this critical time for our industry, the 2021 Cruise Dynamics is highly recommended for any CLIA travel agent, regardless of accreditation.

Among the many layers that make up CLIA’s recovery strategy for the cruise industry is an emphasis on restoring confidence. This means earning the confidence of our travel agent partners, the confidence of governments, and the confidence of the travelling public.

Nothing is more fundamental to that confidence than the new health measures cruise lines have committed to, here and around the world.

To find out more visit www.cruising.org.au.

HEADLINES JANUARY 2021 11 Jan 18 Jan 19 Jan 21 Jan

NCLH may mandate vaccinations Silversea celebrates new Dawn Shipyard pressure grows for Genting APT new Aussie small ship cruises

travelBulletin FEBRUARY 2021

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LAST WORD

AR

YoFreeSamples.com ©2017

Funnies Flashback We’ve trawled through the Travel Daily Window Seat archives to give you a blast from the past. Here’s a gem from 24 June 2014: EAST Japan Railway Company, or ER Rail, has rolled out the perfect fix to the normal stress of being pushed, quite literally, onto one of the country’s trains.

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Help us discover chocolate

The country’s first Bullet Train complete with foot spas will launch service on a limited schedule from Jul-Sep, running on the Yamagata line between Fukushima and Shinjo with the aim of promoting visitation to the Yamagata prefecture.

One car on the train will be fitted with two 2.4m windowfacing foot baths so up to 143 passengers can soak their feet as they watch the world go by.

D RL

MAZES are often reserved for entertaining children, but don’t worry, this is not a kid-level puzzle. This maze is classified as insane. Just in case you can’t see the start and finish, because it’s so complex, they are in the top right and bottom left respectively. Good luck!

W HE O

A-MAZE-ING

N U O DT

In the lead up to Easter, submit your chocolate recipes from around the world for our weekly feature. They can be desserts, snacks, savoury dishes or beverages.

CLICK HERE

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