By Jen Cowley

Australians have always been keen travellers. Whether its wanderlust borne of our geographic remoteness from the rest of the globe, an innate sense of adventure or the fact that we’re just plain sticky-beakers, Aussies are renowned rovers.

And it seems we may be on the threshold of a brave new world of travel thanks, perversely, to a global pandemic that has had us locked out and down for two long, passport-free years.

We’re (almost) all vaxxed-up raring to go, but how exactly will it look when we’re finally able to take again to the skies and the seas?

Of all the sectors to be decimated by the Coronavirus king hit, the travel industry is the one that has perhaps more than most suffered a body blow from which many of its operators will never recover.

Countless inhabitants of the industry have already jumped ship, while others are still clinging to the wreckage in the hope of making landfall soon.

Those organisations and agents who are able to hang on long enough – and just how long that will be is anyone’s guess – will find themselves operating in a travel landscape that has changed almost beyond recognition, particularly when it comes to leaving Australian shores.

One who has managed to weather the Covid storm so far, thanks to a serendipitous decision to move into the “mobile” sphere some years prior to the pandemic, is industry veteran Sonya Hogan.

With 31 years’ experience under her belt, Sonya made the shift to being a mobile travel agent nine years ago and while she doesn’t have a shop front (so none of those overheads), it does mean being “on” seven days a week.

She admits it’s been a “really tough time” during the pandemic, but that her other day job as a real estate agent has helped keep food on the table.

“I’m so lucky that I didn’t have a shop front and staff – there are people, really good agents, who really should be still in the industry who aren’t and likely won’t come back. The industry has lost a lot of good people,” she says sadly, from behind the laptop at her kitchen table-cum-office.

The industry has been forever changed by the pandemic, she believes, the most significant of these changes to affect her business’ bottom line being the decline in the number of travel wholesalers.

“We’re now having to go direct to properties instead of using, say a Qantas Holidays or Viva Holidays, which I tended to use because they’re Australian and your money stays in Australia.”

Now, she says, she and other agents have been “pushed to the likes of Expedia”, which are foreign-owned with limited domestically-based staff.

“A lot of the wholesalers have finished up – they just couldn’t survive Covid.”

Essentially, agents have far fewer options now when it comes to wholesalers for travel experiences and accommodation, a limitation that ultimately impacts not only consumers, but the agents themselves given few hotels will pay commission when contacted directly for bookings, and agents depend on such commissions to earn a living.

And while that might sound fine from a consumers’ perspective, be careful what you wish for, Sonya warns.

“Thanks to Covid, I think agents are going to become even more important because there are so many dodgy internet companies out there and you don’t know who you’re giving your money to.

“At least when you book through an agent, they’re your advocate. My phone is beside me 24/7 – if you have an issue, you can call me and I go into bat for you and sort it out. With some of those companies, once they have your money, that’s it.”

Sonya cites the example of trying to secure refunds for people from some of the lesser known internet-based companies: “Eighteen months down the track, we’re still waiting for their refunds.”

The job of an agent will also become much more valuable for consumers in terms of navigating the raft of diverse and evolving rules and regulations that will come with post-Covid international travel.

Once the dust settles, if it ever does, and we learn to live with Covid in whatever the much-vaunted “new normal” will look like, Sonya says agents will become the most important cog in the travel wheel, and while she would of course say that, it’s hard to argue:

“This whole having to get PCR tests and Rapid Antigen Tests (RATs), and different restrictions and visa and entry requirements for every different country is changing on a daily basis,” Sonya explains. “I’m working that out only a week before anyone goes so that I can get the most up to date information and even then, it can still change.

“You’re learning all the time. You can’t be complacent. You can’t just book a ticket and go to the airport anymore.”

•••

For consumers, who are itching to get back out there, up there and over there, how will the actual experience of international travel have been changed by Covid?

“You need to be even more planned than before. You can’t just wing it. You’ll need to know what PCR tests or RATs you’ll need before and after departure and arrival and when you have to have them – and which of those tests are accepted and what you need to do to get back on the plane to come home. And that’s just at the moment – who knows how it will all change going forward?”

There’ll be more challenges than just arriving at a destination and working out where to go for a taxi, she says.

Additional costs will also have to be factored into the travel budget, with testing done only at the traveller’s expense.

“For instance, if you’re country-hopping in Europe, you’ll need tests to cross each of those borders – it can be up to EU100 per PCR test. It can add a huge expense.

“People are going to have to be aware of the extra time all these arrangements are going to take, in terms of planning and also meeting flights and so on, and also the extra cost.”

Even though these considerations will add an extra layer of expense and logistics, Sonya doesn’t believe it will put international travel out of the reach of ordinary Australians.

In fact, she says, to the contrary.

“We’re a resilient bunch. And we’re adventurous.

“We’ve learned through Covid what’s important, and it’s about experiences. Many people have also saved money throughout the lockdowns and restrictions, and we’re just itching to go.

“People are resigned to the fact that there’ll be extra expense attached, and we’ll learn to live with that.”

Speaking of necessary evils, how is travel insurance shaping up?

“Insurers are covering for Covid in terms of if you catch it, but they’re not covering border closures and that’s the tricky part. If you get sick from the virus, your hospitalisation and medical expenses will be covered, but if you’re stuck because of borders closing, that’s a different case.

“You’ll be relying on the airlines and the hotels to help out with cancellations and amendments.”

The cost has gone up slightly, says Sonya, but the importance of travel insurance has skyrocketed. The question now is not so much can you afford it, it’s can you afford to be without it?

“Doesn’t matter where you go or for how long – even if you’re going for a long weekend. You just never know what’s going to happen either there or here. The insurance will cover you if someone back here gets Covid and you need to get back urgently.

“If Covid has taught us anything, it’s to expect the unexpected. Things can change dramatically very quickly.

“Travel insurance has always been vital. Now it’s absolutely essential. Do not leave this country without travel insurance.”

•••

For people who are thinking they might like to climb back onto the travel bandwagon in 2022, Sonya’s chief piece of advice is “just do it”.

“Don’t be afraid to book. Accommodation providers, tourist operators, airlines – they’ve all learned to be very flexible in allowing you to change dates.

“There are some fantastic deals out there – if you think you’re going, lock it in.

“You’ll be advised of the cancellation fees up front so you can make your decision – sometimes it’s only a couple of hundred dollars and it’s worth taking the risk to secure some of the really cheap fares that are out there at the moment.”

Her other important tip is to book through an agent.

“Have that face-to-face contact. Know who you’re dealing with, not some third party that doesn’t care once they have your money.

“There’s still a huge misconception that the internet is cheaper than going through an agent. I can assure you it’s not. People think going direct to the accommodation providers is cheaper – it’s not always.

“When you send your money off to an agent, you know who you’re sending it to.”

As an agent, she has a vested interest in encouraging people to travel, but Sonya herself is also a seasoned and keen traveller and consumer who, like many of us, is eager to dust off the passport.

“We know that Covid is something we’re just going to have to live with in many aspects of our life, and travel is another.

“There’s always going to be something that threatens our movements around the world – we got through SARS (virus), we survived bird ‘flu, there are conflicts that pop up... we’ll get through this as well.

“We can’t stay isolated forever.”