Airlie Beach hospitality businesses embrace tourism boom after Queensland border reopening

A Whitsunday restaurateur forced to turn away 400 customers in the past week argues Covid-19 ‘should be treated like any other illness’ when it comes to staff staying home from work.

The owner of an iconic Airlie Beach restaurant is calling for Covid-positive staff to be allowed to work as his business struggles to meet customer demand.

Sorrento Restaurant and Bar owner Iyas Shaheen says about 25 per cent of his staff has isolated at home over the Christmas and New Year period because of Covid contacts.

It meant the waterfront venue had turned away at least 400 potential customers, and he was struggling to find enough staff to cover shifts.

Mr Shaheen said his staff had tested negative but were considered close contacts to positive Covid cases.

He still had to pay sick leave while “healthy” workers were at home and, with “the floodgates open” to the virus, called for a change to the directive so only those experiencing symptoms and unfit for work would be required to isolate.

Iyas Shaheen and Mandy Coles at Sorrento Restaurant and Bar.

“If we’re going to move on and let the virus run rampant, we should treat it like any other illness where you call in sick if you’re sick, but if you have the virus and you’re not sick you can come to work and it does not have to be dependent on a negative test,” he said.

“It [the virus] is everywhere now – if you test positive but there’s nothing wrong with you, you should be able to go to work.”

Mr Shaheen said hospitality workers often shared accommodation, so “all it takes is one” to test positive to trigger wider isolations.

He said other venues were facing similar issues and were forced to undertake strategic temporary closures to ensure enough staff remained available to work on New Year’s Eve.

“Lots of businesses had to close for a day or two because they didn't have enough staff to cover all shifts, so they tried to maximise the day they thought would be the busiest,” he explained.

“[Coral Sea Resort Hotel restaurant] The Rocks has been shut for over a week – they haven't been trading at all.”

Iyas Shaheen with Ali Rosemond and Mandy Coles at a Tourism Whitsundays event.

Mr Shaheen believed the problems would have been less severe had the border reopening been delayed until after the summer school holidays, even going as far as to say his business “probably would've been better off”over Christmas and New Year’s if it had “just stuck to [serving] Queenslanders”.

“You open the doors at this time of year, you flood Queensland with it [the virus],” he said.

“All of a sudden you’ve got hundreds of thousands of holiday-makers and it’s rampant, it’s everywhere.

“If they’d done it after Christmas and after the holidays, we’d be talking about a tenth of that number and the spread would be a lot slower and a lot more manageable.”

 ‘Absolutely dead’ to busier than ever: Airlie Beach is back in business

An influx of interstate travellers made for a happy Christmas and New Year’s for struggling Airlie Beach hospitality and tourism operators.

But some say a worsening worker shortage is preventing them from taking full advantage of the boost.

Restaurateur Joe Panuccio confirmed venues that stayed open last week experienced “solid” customer numbers, and no major issues enforcing Covid-19 health restrictions.

At his Italian restaurant La Marina and cocktail bar Paradiso, Mr Panuccio said it had been difficult at the busiest times to “patrol” large numbers of people for masks where required and social distancing, but overall crowds had been “reasonably good” at complying.

He was pleased to see the town come back to life after a quiet year.

“It was probably one of the biggest weeks I’ve seen in my time in Airlie Beach,” he said.

“There’s so many people around town – it’s really good because it’s been absolutely dead.

“It was the quietest I’ve ever seen it and the busiest I’ve ever seen it in the same week, if that’s possible.”

Paradiso cocktail bar is one of many Airlie Beach hospitality venues on the lookout for more staff.

But Mr Panuccio said trade could have been even better, for a larger number of venues, were it not for difficulties finding staff to meet the increased demand.

He said the worker shortage was a longstanding issue in the Whitsundays – with the lack of overseas backpackers during the pandemic a contributing factor, as well as a lack of accommodation for new arrivals- but had become worse “since the borders opened and the rules changed”.

“There was already a shortage before that and it’s just got worse and worse,” he said.

La Marina and Paradiso were yet to adjust operating hours because of the shortage, but Mr Panuccio said they were “very close” to doing so and he knew of “quite a few” venues in town forced to close completely over the Christmas New Year period because of staffing issues.

“Because of lot of other venues were closed, the ones that were open were getting smashed,” he said.

“We were turning a hundred away a day at Paradiso.”