In July with lockdown in full swing, we spoke to a couple of local travel agents about how tough things were for them. With states now starting to reopen their borders, we went back to them for an update.
It was one of the toughest COVID gigs of all - selling travel when the world is in lockdown, when effectively there is nowhere to travel to.
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And it has changed the face of the industry across Maitland with a number of travel agencies almost certainly shutting doors for good.
"I think you'll find a number of travel offices across Maitland won't open again," Warwick 'Curly' Gladman of Greenhills Travel said. "I can think of two, but expect there will probably be more. It has been really tough."
Down the road, Geoffrey Antoniades, director of Andys World Travel at East Maitland named the same two that "won't open again - they're shut for good".
Thing have been so challenging for the industry that the Australian Federation of Travel Agents has sought a $250 million assistance package from the Federal Government to see their members through.
It was also why news this week that Queensland and Tasmania is open to regional NSW residents is such big news.
"That means we can now sell to Queensland, Tasmania and South Australia, and in a couple of weeks to Western Australia," Mr Gladman said. "We at least have holidays we can offer people again.
"And the good thing about Queensland is that locals can fly out of Newcastle without having to go to Sydney. You can go directly to the airport in Sydney and fly out, but if you stay there overnight you'll be quarantined."
For the last few months he and his staff of two - kept on with JobKeeper assistance - have been busy rebooking holidays or organising refunds for cancelled trips. Necessary work, but certainly not money-making.
"People are desperate to travel and we're getting inquiries, so I expect things to pick up quite a bit in the next couple of weeks," Mr Gladman said. "I hope so, anyway.
"Yesterday I booked a holiday for eight people to Far North Queensland, and last week I booked a 35-day Pacific cruise for six people in 2022.
"So people are breaking their necks to travel and get away but, with so many borders closed, people are waiting and you can understand that."
If things have been tough for Mr Gladman, they've been incredibly challenging for Mr Antoniades.
"I mentioned back when we last spoke that most of my clients are corporate and involve a lot of international travel, as well as mining executives going to Western Australia - which is still not open by the way - that sort of thing," he said.
"So while the other states being open to NSW is a good thing, it doesn't impact me greatly.
"I'm lucky though, in that I own the building so I don't have to pay rent, but we still have overheads, and bills you have to pay.
"I kept my staff on thanks to JobKeeper but they only come in one day a week.
"For international travel to get started again we really need a vaccine. That's the key.
"I think even when international travel returns, the older people may wait 12 months just to be sure. So I think for travel agents there's still a long, tough road ahead."
Aside from the vaccine being the only real solution, both agents also agreed on one thing: it's more important than ever to book travel through an agent right now.
"Flights are being changed, arrangements altered all over the place," Mr Antoniades said.
"You may save a little bit trying to organise things yourself, but when things are changed or cancelled on you with very little notice, you have nowhere to turn. You're stuck.
"But when you go through an agent, you have someone you can talk to on the phone, someone who can get things sorted for you. That's our job. It's money well spent, especially now."
A journo all my working life and never wanted to change, also a self confessed sports tragic.
A journo all my working life and never wanted to change, also a self confessed sports tragic.
