Warwick 'Curly' Gladman, owner of Greenhills Travel Centre for 25 years, says he has never seen anything like it.

And he's seen a lot ... "SARS, Bird Flu, 9/11, the Global Financial Crisis, war in the Balkans, Iraq, Kuwait, airlines shot down, tsunamis and now this".

Down the road at Andys World Travel in East Maitland, the story is the same, yet both stayed open right through the lockdown period.

While other businesses can adjust or change the business model - do takeaways, home delivery or maybe work from home, there's no Plan B for travel agents. How do you sell travel when there's no travel to sell?

"Believe it or not we've been really busy rescheduling holidays," Mr Gladman said.

"We have more than 800 clients and you can't just close your doors on them and say 'you're on your own'.

"So we're rebooking their holidays. There's no way I could do it on my own so I've kept my three staff on right through.

"We've been really busy, but not making any money. Still, we're looking on the positive side that we're still operating and the phones are still ringing."

Mr Gladman said while experienced travellers understand that cancelled travel payments are held in credit, some people don't.

"That's another tough part of the job, explaining that there's no refunds," he said. "And it's only to a minority of people. Most people are understanding.

"We don't hold the money, we pass it on to the cruise company or the wholesaler of whoever. It's very rare that a travel agent keeps the money, and because we don't have it we can't refund it."

He said he still gets a lot of people wanting him to try to help get money back even though the person has booked online.

"People think booking online is cheaper but it's not," he said. "And if it is, it's usually because it's non-refundable.

"I'm forever telling people that I can't help them.

"We very rarely book anything that's non refundable and for the extra $30 or whatever it is it costs, it's money well spent."

Despite the huge slowdown, there is still a steady stream of people inquiring about holidays.

"But we are still getting people asking when they can get overseas again. But I think things will be generally pretty slow for the next 12 months," he said.

Geoff Antoniades employs four people at Andys World Travel and says this is all new to him too.

"I was in an office that was lost in Beaumont Street Newcastle when the earthquake hit in '89, I saw 9/11, but this is altogether different," he said.

"I kept my four staff on and we worked right through, but we needed JobKeeper to allow me to do it.

"The trouble I have is that only about 10 per cent of my business is local and interstate travel.

"The rest is international and there's no international right now. I usually have corporates flying overseas all the time, but would you fly to the United States right now?

"I'm working hard to get refunds where I can - but that's usually where it's cancelled at the other end, like a hotel in Italy for example - I have a lot of credits coming in.

"I wouldn't say I'm flat out, but keeping busy. Unfortunately, none of us are making any money."