Ballarat travel agencies are still barely keeping their heads above water despite the federal government's announcement of a second support package to prop up one of the industries hardest hit by the COVID-19 pandemic.
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The federal government announced on Sunday it will provide an additional $130 million to travel agents on top of the first round's $128 million.
About 3000 operators received support through the first round, according to government estimates, which was partly used to refund customers for bookings which were cancelled due to COVID-19 restrictions.
Travel agents who received a round one payment will be entitled to a second payment ranging between $7500 and $100,000 and to be eligible, the business must have had a turnover of between $50,000 and $20 million in the 2019 calendar year and have received the JobKeeper extension.
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The funding comes as every part of Australia and New Zealand was deemed a 'green zone' under the Victorian government's travel permit system from Monday, allowing total freedom of movement.
Holiday and Cruise Centre owner Nicole King, who was forced to leave her Sturt Street shopfront to turn the travel agency into a home business, said she was concerned not enough businesses would be able to access the funding.
"They haven't really asked the right people as to what the criteria should be and what's needed," she said.
"It's great having all this money, but if it's not going to the people that really need it then it's just not going to save a lot of businesses which is really, really sad."
The announcement of new funding comes as the JobKeeper wage subsidy finished at the end of March, forcing two of Ms King's employees to find new jobs after more than a decade each in the travel industry.
"[It was] really sad but we pretty much openly spoke about the whole JobKeeper and that it most likely won't be extended so the girls actually went off and found other jobs," Ms King said.
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"They loved being in travel but there's no work in travel so I'm just really happy that they've got other work and I've still got two staff members."
Frank Ford Travel director Kylee Ellerton said one of the bigger issues was travel agents were working overtime to process refunds and credits for trips booked in the past 18 months, but were struggling for income due to a lack of new bookings.
"I'm finding it very challenging. I can't put on new staff because I can't afford any new staff so the staff that I've got and myself are working 20 times harder," she said.
"I'd like to employ a new staff member and give someone a chance to travel but I can't unless I get more government assistance and I can't give the girls any extra hours because I can't afford to pay them.
"We haven't had much income since March last year. We've had a little bit come in now that people are starting to travel, but they still haven't got enough confidence and as soon as they shut down the border, we're doing more refunds again."
Ms King estimated that she had processed about $2 million worth of refunds and credits since international travel first started to be cancelled last March.
"We can book 12 to 18 months in advance so you've got all that business that you were helping to organise from 2018 onwards for 2020 that suddenly it's all got to go backwards," she said.
"It has been really, really hard. That's the only word that I can use to describe it."
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