Cancelled holidays hit Queensland tourism operators
Record floods in Far North Queensland will cost the local tourism industry an estimated $125 million as ex-tropical cyclone Jasper forced tourism operators to shut down for a week and holidaymakers cancelled their bookings.
Weather conditions eased on Tuesday, allowing Cairns Airport to reopen and tourism operators to assess the damage caused by the slow-moving weather system that dumped more than 2000 millimetres of rain on the region in a week.
Cairns Airport reopened on Tuesday after it had been inundated. Hinterland Aviation
Tourism operators have stepped up to support the recovery efforts, providing accommodation to emergency workers and diverting their reef charter boats to ferry Ergon Energy workers and medical supplies between Cairns and Port Douglas, which remained cut off by road.
Mark Olsen, chief executive of Tourism Tropical North Queensland, said the industry was likely to lose out on $125 million in December and January, which represents 15 per cent to 20 per cent of total expenditure over those months.
“Most concerning is the lack of bookings that would normally be coming through now for January and the level of cancellations that we’re seeing in January,” Mr Olsen said.
“Accommodation is almost all open and unaffected. The experiences [businesses] are assessing impacts today many of those say that they’ll be operating today or tomorrow.”
The weather has dampened the start of the summer tourism season. Ernestine Abuton, manager of Guyala Cafe in the heart of Cairns, said trade was down about 80 per cent compared with the usual holiday period.
Cancellations hurt
“We have a very good local following, so they’re still here, but we don’t have the tourists at all – zero, for the past few days,” she said.
Farther north, Wendy Crossman, who runs the beachfront resort By the Sea Port Douglas, estimates she has lost $30,000 to $40,000 because of cancelled bookings. “And if you multiply that by all the little businesses here, they’ve been doing it hard,” Ms Crossman said.
Felicity Ward, owner of the Lilybank Stratford, said her hotel west of Cairns Airport was cut off by floodwater and she was assessing the damage. She suffered financial loss in the form of cancellations, as well as damage to “rugs, lounges, soft furnishings, and now, of course, there’s the issue of mould”.
Tourism operators urged travellers not to cancel their plans and were racing to restart activities such as Great Barrier Reef trips, skydiving and rainforest tours.
John O’Sullivan is chief executive of Experience Co, which operates the second-largest marine fleet in Cairns and Port Douglas, skydiving in Cairns and Mission Beach and a ropes course in the canopy of the Daintree rainforest.
He said the company’s vessels, aircraft and vehicles were largely intact, but he was feeling the loss of seven days of trade.
The company restarted tours to Green Island and Fitzroy Island on Tuesday and plans to bring back skydiving on Wednesday. Its 300-person charter cruise ship will operate as a ferry between Cairns and Port Douglas until the road reopens.
“We did the first service this morning and we had critical workers from Ergon Energy and NBN Co, and we had a dialysis machine being brought up from Cairns,” Mr O’Sullivan said.
“The best thing you can do to support the region now is to continue with your holiday plans … there’ll be some alterations to things, but the industry is used to dealing with these weather events and getting back on its feet quickly.”
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