A multi-million-dollar lifeline for travel agents has been criticised by some within the sector as poorly designed and not going far enough to save businesses from shutting down.
Earlier this month, the Federal Government announced $128 million worth of cash payments for travel agents struggling due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Perth travel agent Christine Ross-Davies said she was celebrating the news until she read the detail and realised she would not receive as much support as she expected.
"I was filled with so much hope and belief," she said.
"Unfortunately now being in the position I'm in, if they don't do something to just put the brakes on this, and re-visit the measurement and the way that they allocate these funds, then there's absolutely no way I can survive.
"I'll need to shut my office by next month."
The Government is offering payments of between $1,500 for a business with an annual turnover of $50,000 to $100,000 for a business with a turnover of $20 million.
Small Business Ombudsman Kate Carnell said there were differences within the sector as to how annual turnover was reported, with many smaller operators only counting the money they made from commissions (usually around 10 per cent of a booking), rather than the total amount passing through their hands and onto other businesses like airlines and cruise companies.
"It's quite complex but it's really important, this is $128 million and there's a lot of smaller travel agents that are sweating on this money," she said.
"It will be the difference between life and death for them."
Government defends support package
Ms Carnell has written to the Tourism Minister, Simon Birmingham, saying that while many travel agents are grateful for extra support, there should be changes to the way the scheme is administered.
Shadow Tourism Minister Don Farrell went further, arguing it needed to be re-designed.
"At the end of the day, it was a Government decision to close these borders that affected these travel agents, the Government's got a special responsibility in respect of this industry," he said.
"It hasn't delivered and it's got to go right back to the drawing board, start again."
In a statement, Senator Birmingham said the Government was focussed on rolling out payments to thousands of travel agents as quickly as possible.
"This $128 million package, on top of the $700 million already provided to the sector through programs such as JobKeeper, was developed in consultation with the Australian Federation of Travel Agents (AFTA)," he said.
AFTA chief executive Darren Rudd said while he was appreciative, he would like to see the amount of money being offered to small operators boosted.
However, he did not believe the way the money was allocated would change, conceding not everyone would be pleased.
"I know the Government and Austrade as the supporting agency in this case have looked extensively at what is the fairest, most equitable and efficient way of measuring what should be paid out to travel agents," he said.
"I do appreciate that this is frustrating. When travel agents and the travel sector meets government … which has really never been done in this context before like this, in the view of getting grants to help sustain them, there is going to be a lot of ambiguity, a lot of confusion, a lot of new learnings.
"And we're just going to have to maturely, and in an adult way, navigate our way through those together."
