Gold Coast Covid: How much will it cost the city to be locked down?

The Gold Coast’s devastated tourism industry will hemorrhage millions over the weekend, with tourism bosses pleading for those already holidaying here to stay put. FULL DETAILS >>>

• Lockdown rules explained
• How Coast is handling the lockdown

THE Gold Coast’s devastated tourism industry will hemorrhage more than$33 million over the weekend, with tourism bosses pleading for those already holidaying here to stay put.

The latest Covid outbreak has seen events and activities, including the Gold Coast Marathon, cancelled while the city is in lockdown.

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The marathon was set to inject more than $20 million into the economy this weekend, while the loss to accommodation providers is expected to top $13 million.

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Some hotels are now reporting occupancy rates dropping to just 20 percent, down 50 per cent on expectations.

Destination Gold Coast CEO Patricia O’Callaghan said every single day of the lockdown was hurting the city.

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“There is no sugarcoating it, many families on the Gold Coast woke up this morning very heavy hearted,” she said.

“We are in lockdown and we have had a wave of cancellations and the impact has been almost immediate.

“We were looking forward to a bumper school holidays and we very much needed it after a devastating 18 months.

“The airport was reporting they were nearly at pre-pandemic levels for almost every route except Sydney.”

MARATHON 2021 CANCELLED

THE Gold Coast Marathon has been cancelled, but officials are scrambling to come up with other arrangements.

Organisers of the event, one of the city’s biggest, met early Tuesday afternoon and made the decision after the southeast was plunged into a snap three-day lockdown.

"It is with the utmost regret that due to the three-day lockdown enforced by the Queensland Government to mitigate the spread of Covid-19, Events Management Queensland has been left with no choice but to cancel the Village Roadshow Theme Parks Gold Coast Marathon," a statement read.

"The ongoing health risks, impacts on workforce/volunteers, disruptions to travel and uncertainty ahead dictated drastic action to ensure there were no further threats to the health and wellbeing of participants, stakeholders and the wider Gold Coast community.

"This decision has not been made lightly given the experience of the 2020 cancellation and comes with heartfelt disappointment from the team at Events Management Queensland."

The marathon was last held in 2019 when it attracted more than 26,000 runners and injected millions into the economy. It was cancelled last year due to Covid-19. This year’s event was already constrained by closed international borders that had prevented many of the sport’s biggest names from travelling to the Gold Coast.

It is understood many competitors who had signed up to run in the event will be offered spots in the virtual marathon and will receive both a T-shirt and medal for completing it.

It comes as the Gold Coast theme parks will all close at 6pm Tuesday night in line with the lockdown.

Village Roadshow chief operating officer Bikash Randhawa said he was devastated to be forced to close the parks again.

“We really, really hope this will just be for the three days,” he said.

“As per government direction we intend to open on Saturday.

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“This is a very difficult time for us to face this and we hope for our sake and for all small businesses out there, that we can get this under control.”

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Originally published as Gold Coast Covid: How much will it cost the city to be locked down?