They've just spent the past few months flat-out cancelling or rescheduling bookings without making a cent and are currently faced without a product to sell in a COVID-19 world.

"We sell travel and if travel's not happening, there's nothing we can sell," Moree's M&G Travel owner and manager Liz Whiteley said.

Mrs Whiteley has been a travel agent in Moree for 41 years, starting out with M&G Travel when it first opened before taking over ownership of the business with her husband Allan 15 years ago.

In all that time, she says the impacts of COVID-19 on the travel industry is like nothing she's ever seen.

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"I've been through SARS, 9/11, the pilot strike in 1989 which a lot of people might not remember, but it was a big deal for us at the time," she said.

"But I've never seen anything like this. This has had the worst effect on the travel industry I've ever seen.

"Unlike cafes and restaurants and beauty salons in town that have closed, they have a product that they can still sell - the cafes did takeaways and the beauty salons still had products to sell.

"But for us, there's no other product we can sell. We can only sell a train ticket or a plane ticket, but we're also competing with online."

From when the pandemic first hit in mid-March, M&G Travel spent two and a half months mostly just trying to get their clients home from overseas.

"One day I spent six hours on the phone to an airline trying to get a client home," Mrs Whiteley said.

They've also been busy rescheduling or cancelling holidays and liaising with their clients on the constant changes to travel and bookings.

"It was quite a stressful time," Mrs Whiteley said.

"We've been doing work for our clients but not earning an income," Mr Whiteley added.

"In fact, we have been losing money ... when a refund comes back, any money we've earned on that trip goes back to the client.

"So just say most of our commissions are 10 per cent and we book a $60,000 trip, we'd make $6000. If the client gets a refund, we have to give that $6000 back, so we might have done two to three or even five months of work for nothing."

But that's just travel, Mrs Whiteley said.

"You've got to do the right thing and hope that that client will come back to us when they do travel again," she said.

Fortunately, a majority of M&G Travel's clients have been very understanding.

"All of my clients have been really good," Mrs Whiteley said.

"Everybody just understands that it's unforeseen and uncontrollable."

While lots of Moree people have had to cancel their big overseas holidays, Mrs Whiteley said they are starting to see some clients looking into domestic or interstate trips instead.

"We've got a few but we're not being inundated," she said.

"It would be fantastic if we got more of that though. We can do that.

"I think people are a bit hesitant about booking or committing to anything at the moment because they don't know what's going to happen."

As a result of being especially quiet lately, M&G Travel has reduced its business hours from 9am to 1pm Monday to Friday, however the Whiteleys say they are here to stay.

In fact, they've recently moved from their Balo Street address to a much more inviting home in Frome Street, next to PR Interiors.

The move had been planned well before COVID-19, however Mr Whiteley said if they were still in their old building, they might have had to close for good by now.

"If we were still there we would have closed the doors," he said.

"The rent was twice as much and the costs of heating and cooling were much higher. This is much nicer."

The M&G team, including the Whiteleys and senior travel consultant Catherine Vanbest, encourage potential travellers to pop in and have a chat to them about any future travel plans, while checking out their new building.

If there's ever a time to book a holiday through a travel agent, this would be it, if only for the customer service they provide should anything go wrong.

"Use your local travel agent," Mr Whiteley's advice to would-be travellers is.

"Come and talk to us and we can give you all your options and can explain flexibility options," Ms Vanbest added.

"In the current times, it's worth knowing everything."

Although things have been tough, the Whiteleys are remaining positive.

"We're staying positive because we know [travel] will come back eventually," Mrs Whiteley said.

"International travel might not happen until they have a vaccine, but by the end of the year I would hope that travel opens up to New Zealand, the South Pacific and maybe some South East Asian countries.

"Let's hope travel pops again and people are just desperate to have a holiday."