It should come as no surprise that one of the industries not merely hit but belted out of the park by the accursed, disgusting, grubby little fragment of organic matter known as Covid 19 is the travel industry. I have seen a disconcerting number of empty shopfronts pop-up over the last few months, but far fewer than I would probably have expected in the circumstances. On the other hand there is one class of store that seems to have a disproportionate representation; travel agencies.

The leading brand in Australia is, as far as I know, Flight Centre. It has closed around 370 locations since the start of coronavirus.

Another major player is HelloWorld Travel, which is a completely franchised operation. Actually, it has a lot more franchises than Flight Centre, but each one seems to be smaller. Overall the group had revenue of 352.5 million for the year ending 2019 (pre-virus), while Flight Centre had revenue of just over 3 billion. HelloWorld had lost 125 stores by July, though I can't find a good reference for how many it has lost up to now.

Still, this is one of them apparently. Interestingly it doesn't have the traditional blue and white HelloWorld colour scheme aside from the stickers on the windows. I suspect that this retro colour scheme was used to fit in with the village atmosphere of Balgownie, which does indeed have an "earlier era" village vibe about it.

The website is still up, though it looks like it may be just a page of the corporate site. It's possible that the agency is still operating virtually, though how sustainable that is as a business model is hard to say. It was the personal touch that allowed the remaining travel agencies to maintain a competitive advantage. If you're just dealing with a website and an email address, you may as well be booking directly with the airlines, hotels and so on yourself.

Even if you're not a heavy user of travel agents, the loss of a little, retro styled shop like this diminishes the neighbourhood. It is indeed a pity. Unfortunately, this is going to get worse before it gets better, which is what inspired me to go for an "off-kilter" framing here.