The Australian Travel Industry Association (ATIA) is escalating its Campaign for Commonsense, mobilising travel advisors and tour operators nationwide to push for changes to Australia’s travel advice for Middle East transit passengers.
The move follows a weekend of widespread mainstream media coverage and comes after sustained feedback from frontline travel businesses, which say current government advice is creating unintended consequences for travellers.
At the centre of the campaign is Australia’s Level 4 “Do Not Travel” advisory covering key Middle East transit hubs, including Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Doha.
According to ATIA members, thousands of Australians continue to transit through these airports safely each week while travelling to Europe and beyond. However, the blanket advisory can leave travellers exposed to complications with travel insurance, as many policies exclude coverage when a traveller passes through a destination under a Level 4 warning.
ATIA says it has spent the past two months working behind the scenes with the Federal Government and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT). However, the industry body now believes the issue has reached a critical point.
With this in mind, the association has released a member toolkit containing social media assets, client talking points and template letters designed to help advisors and operators support the campaign.
ATIA CEO Dean Long said the push originated directly from members.
“This campaign started exactly where it should: with our members,” Long said.
“Our travel advisor and tour operator members raised the alarm because their clients are transiting these airports safely every day, yet many of them are flying into a travel insurance void because the official advice refuses to decouple a brief airport transit from an in-country holiday.”
ATIA argues Australia is now out of step with several international allies, including the UK, Germany, France and Ireland, which have adopted lower-level advisories for airport transit.
Rather than removing warnings entirely, the association is calling for a staged approach that treats a short airside transit differently from an extended stay.
“We have worked constructively and quietly with the government for two months now, but we have reached an inflection point where Australia is a total outlier,” Long said.
ATIA says more than 150,000 Australians have transited through the region’s major hubs in the past six weeks and warns that maintaining advice perceived as disconnected from travellers’ experiences risks undermining confidence in official government guidance.
KARRYON UNPACKS: Travel advisors rely on clear, trusted guidance. ATIA’s concern isn’t about encouraging travel to conflict zones; it’s about ensuring official advice reflects how Australians are actually travelling today.
