Face-to-Face: Jayson Westbury - Chief Executive, Australian Federation of Travel Agents (AFTA)
Contributors are not employed, compensated or governed by TD, opinions and statements are from the contributor directly
1) In light of the current economic crisis, is AFTA seeing a shifting toward the greater demand for domestic tourism?
It is still too early to really tell if the global financial crisis (GFC) is going to create a shift towards Australian’s holidaying at home. While much of the message is that Australians will holiday more at home in the coming year, the facts remain that there has not been a mad rush to either alter existing bookings or make new bookings domestically.
The Australian Tourism Forecasting Committee has just released new figures to the end of 2008, they include a forecast out to 2017. The report states that the Australian outbound market will slow by 2.9% and that a modest increase in domestic travel could result. Either way, Australians are going to continue to travel both domestically and internationally. With an estimated 5.6 million trips forecast for 2009 and an increase on that for 2010 and beyond, any shift is more likely a response to marketing efforts and the value of the holiday on offer, rather than a specific move to a domestic holiday because of the GFC.
2) And has AFTA seen any greater involvement in industrial HR relations since the onset of the crisis?
Australia is coming of the end of one of the most competitive employment cycles in history and the industry knows that the good times will roll again. Unless a very serious further downturn was to occur, like has happened within the corporate travel sector, most travel agents will look to hold their people as the opportunity cost is far less than the cost of replacement and retraining. This is not necessarily the case with travel management companies as many of them have felt sharp and immediate implications to their businesses as a result of the GFC, but those that can hold staff will. AFTA provides a range of industrial relations services to travel agencies and there has been no dramatic increase in the number of calls or variation to the standard type of enquiry.
3) With online travel increasing in popularity in Australia, how do you see the future of Australian travel agents?
Is this myth, fact or fiction? The fact remains that travel agents still book the majority of international travel in Australia. There continues to be many, many stories about the online push and the future, but a holiday is an emotional decision and also a very big investment. The majority of people want to be able to talk face-to-face with an experienced expert and invest their money with a company that they can see, feel and touch. Like most consumer items purchased there will always be those that want to do it online; and those that don’t. While travel agents continue to provide the levels of service, relationships, real life experience and value proposition, there future is safe.
4) Through your training & educations programmes, what trends have you noticed in the numbers of people entering the tourism job market?
Travel and tourism is competing with all other industries that sit between trade and profession. The new word seems to be “skills”. This is a very busy and noisy space. Travel and tourism sits in this space and it is up to the industry to work together to promote real careers and real jobs, along with job security to ensure that new entries into the jobs market consider travel and tourism as a dependable option.
5) What major activities will be seeing from AFTA in 2009?
Australia has had the Travel Compensation Fund (TCF) in place for over two decades and it would appear that the Australian government has acknowledged that it needs a review. AFTA will be working on this process in 2009. There are a number of other licensing issues that will also need to be addressed in 2009.
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