Hello World Armadale’s owner and manager Santo Scidone has given The Examiner an inside look at the complex world of travel arrangements in the current unpredictable world.
Mr Scidone said the resilience and determination of the Armadale community in pursuing their travel plans, despite the many hurdles, is a positive sign.
“It’s in their DNA, I find. With Australian travellers, not only in Western Australia, but Australia wide, you will find the same thing. Travel is a part of our livelihood. Our travellers put it in their budget that every year they must take a trip. It’ll be a short trip or a long trip to Europe, USA, Asia, within Australia or New Zealand. It’s something that they generally plan for. They’re pretty good at planning this,” he said.
“The main travel destinations are in Europe. Since COVID, Europe has been even bigger than before. We organise a lot of bookings as well in Japan, Singapore, Thailand and Asia more broadly. In second place, we get New Zealand and African destinations as well. It’s been extremely strong.”
With the City of Armadale’s high population of retirees, Mr Scidone highlighted the major return of cruising since the end of the pandemic. He has called it one of their main markets in this area.
The United States has fallen in popularity as a holiday destination, Mr Scidone says, due to the changes in entry laws and reduced business activity as a result of the country’s progressing isolationism, though it is not a monumental difference.
“I call that the Trump effect. Since the beginning of 2025, when Donald Trump introduced all the new tariffs of his second administration, people have actively changed or cancelled their USA travel. It’s a noticeable decline, but you’re probably looking at about 20 per cent.”
A significant portion of Hello World’s activities for the last half year have centred on rearranging plans as a result of the Iran War, a volatile security situation capable of changing on short notice.
“From the 28th of February to early May departures, about 70 per cent of people had rescheduled. There was constant disruption to travel. However, as I say, Australian travellers are resilient. They will get to their place of travel in the end,” he said.
“We’ve ended up having people go through Asia, with Singapore Airlines via Singapore, a lot through Cathay Pacific via Hong Kong, and Kuala Lumpur as well to reach European destinations. We even had some clients who went to Europe via the USA, due to the last-minute availability following cancellation of their Middle Eastern stopover. We managed to avoid major extra costs to the client with our rebooking’s.”
Given the media focus on security threats to travellers that currently dominate the news cycle, Mr Scidone said much of his business’ workload has focused on supplying clients with correct and up to date information on the realities of their trip, as many have been informed via misleading, sensationalist headlines and, in some cases, faulty AI.
“We regularly inform ourselves of government-issued travel warnings, and when talking to clients, we go into detail. We have no hesitation saying that what they’ve heard is not quite true. We only deal with facts here.
Overall, Mr Scidone said he feels Australians are in the travelling mood right now, which he credits primarily to the aftereffects of the pandemic travel restrictions, low unemployment and the culture of determined travellers in the country.
