Not all CQ tourism operators happy with COVID support
Mixed views on whether government assistance has been enough.
Rockhampton
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CAPRICORN COAST tourism operators have mixed views on whether government support has been enough to assist during the coronavirus pandemic.
On Thursday the Queensland Government announced it would waive the annual commercial whale watching fee as part of a support package for operators affected by the global economic downturn.
Max Allen Snr, whose family has operated Freedom Fast Cats out of Yeppoon’s Rosslyn Bay since 1999, was full of praise for the level of government support to date.
He said while Thursday’s announcement would be of greater benefit to tourism operators at Hervey Bay and further south, businesses in Central Queensland had not been forgotten.
“Our fees have been waived for our day cruises and snorkelling and stuff like that,” he said.
“It does help us a hell of a lot.
“We’ve also had harbour fees waived, at this stage until the end of September, which has helped.
“Jobkeeper has also helped.
“What the state and federal governments have done has been tremendous - it’s certainly kept us afloat.”
Despite the assistance schemes and packages, Mr Allen Snr said some jobs were not able to be saved during the pandemic.
“We had to put off 10 staff altogether because our trade has been down by a good two-thirds, and we’ve got five on Jobkeeper.”
Scott Ryan, who operates Keppel Explorer which provides Great Keppel Island tours, said not enough had been done to help sole traders like himself.
“Definitely not,” he said.
“It’s hard to get into the real nuts and bolts of it all, but basically my business was closed completely for three months and I was compensated with $750 a week.
“And then telling me that because I keep things nice and lean, so because I’m skilled enough to do everything myself and don’t employ other people, as a sole trader I’m not entitled to a single benefit.”
Mr Ryan also described social distancing regulations as “a confusing mess.”
“I only opened up for the two weeks of the school holidays, just because I thought it would take people a bit of time to get back on board with things, and we had to comply with social distancing rules.
“So for the first week we operated at 50 per cent capacity to comply, and then we see the NRL start back up and blokes smashing each other up and exchanging bodily fluids, you know blood and sweat, being a contact sport.
“But we as tour operators weren’t allowed to put people in seats and operate as we did.
“It was very frustrating and confusing.”
Mr Ryan said a relaxing of restrictions had helped in the second week of the school holidays but he had since closed again.
“I thought I would close again and just do the September school holidays onwards,” he said.
“That was due to the borders being closed and the outbreaks happening in Victoria and New South Wales.
“But interestingly enough there has been a fair amount of enquiries and I know some of the local motels, apartments and caravan parks are really busy even after the school holidays.
“So because of that I’m actually going to start up again in a couple of weeks.”
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