Covid-19 border rules: ‘Urgent action needed’ to stop mass tourism cancellations, venues say

Visitors are abandoning Christmas season bookings in droves instead of putting up with SA’s impossible travel rules, traders say, amid fears exposure site updates will cripple businesses.

Gruelling Covid-19 testing regimes and uncertainty over border rules must be addressed to help venues claw back vital summer trade, businesses say.

Robe, usually a mecca for holiday-makers from SA and Victoria, has seen a huge drop-off in customers, as cancelled festive season bookings are also reported in regions across the state.

Sea Vu Caravan Park owner Lisa Hall said staff were “taking phone call after phone call” from people cancelling accommodation for December and January.

Adam Brooks, owner of Sails restaurant in Robe.

It relates to uncertainty over potential border closures, and people travelling between states not wanting to get Covid-tested three times in order to have an interstate holiday.

A positive case attended several businesses in the Limestone Coast town in late November, forcing large numbers of people into isolation.

Those travelling to SA from Victoria, NSW and the ACT must have a negative Covid-19 test in the three days before they arrive, test again on day one and isolate until they receive the result, and then another get another test on day six.

“They don’t want to do that with small children and I can understand that,” Mrs Hall said.

“And if you’re coming over with a tent, how do you isolate in a tent?”

Mrs Hall said the testing requirements also meant people must allocate extra leave time to wait in large testing queues, get swabbed, isolate and receive their results.

“It’s tough. We’ve done everything right, we got our vaccinations and were promised the borders would open, and now this,” she said.

Adam Brooks, owner of Sails at Robe, said about 10 tables were being cancelled at his restaurant each day.

“There’s so much confusion and people are unwilling to travel in case they get locked in or out of SA,” he said.

“We’re down about 35-40 per cent on where we were last year. I’d hate to know what the businesses are like that have been named and shamed.”

Mr Brooks said SA Health should stop publishing exposure sites as it was detrimental to business, and instead rely on QR code check-ins to notify people who must isolate.

Rik and Alex-Andrea Fisher with their two-year-old son Ash at 30 Acres Norwood. Picture: Emma Brasier

Caledonian Inn owner Geoff Prest said his Robe business had taken about $10,000 worth of accommodation booking cancellations since the town’s exposure sites – including his pub – were declared last week.

“It’s a double whammy because it means we’re down on dining as well,” Mr Prest said.

At Norwood, business owners have also noticed a downturn in foot traffic after the Theatre Bugs venue was named as an exposure site.

Rik Fisher, owner of The Parade cafe 30 Acres Norwood, said there was a clear correlation between the Norwood cases emerging and people becoming nervous about going out.

“The next night we had zero people in here for dinner,” he said.

An SA Health spokeswoman said the department was relying on measures including public activity restrictions, contact tracing, isolation and vaccinations, to keep the community safe.

“As part of our response, listing public exposure locations is an important tool as it acts as a call to action for businesses and members of the public, to assess whether they need to be tested for Covid-19,” she said.

“We have also put in place measures in response to the potential risk of the new and potentially highly contagious Omicron variant and we encourage travellers to plan ahead.”

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