As per the calculation of the Irish Travel Agents Association (ITAA), if the government doesn’t interfere the travel industry, there will be nearly 3000 people are at risk of long-term unemployment.
The association says that the sector has been severely affected by the global pandemic. It also says that the industry is down by 98%.
In order to tackle this the association is now seeking assistance to help repair the damage of the travel industry.
The assistance will include wage subsidies, grants, etc. to support the struggling travel business.
The industry is mainly encompassed of family- run business and approximately 3,500 people work here.
Right now, all of these workers are at the risk of long-term unemployment and this will become more worst if no action is taken now.
The ITAA says that the travel agents have had to remain open to service customers with cancellations, refunds and re-booking holidays.
“These companies could not close down even though they were effectively blocked from trading and they have had to continue to carry a proportion of salary and all overhead costs,” the association said.
The group also claims that if additional supports are not made available, there will be widespread collapse in the industry, with many companies closing resulting in job losses and subsequent impacts on consumers.
Since the beginning of the Covid-19 outbreak there have been constant and regular meetings with the Department of Transport and the ITAA, which was in March.
In June, the group submitted a business support plan which outlines the current situation of the travel sector in Ireland.
ITAA CEO Pat Dawson says that due to the outbreak of COVID-19, the travel industry has been forced into lockdown for an indefinite period of time.
“We want to work with Government to save lives and keep our families, our staff, our clients and our communities safe, but we also need to preserve our businesses so that we can resume operations when it is safe to do so, he said.
He also added that the Irish industry is in an exceptional position and it is facing long a term recovery and urgently require the support and assistance of Government.
“If our staff are laid off, it will be extremely difficult to restart our businesses when the pandemic has subsided,” he said.