Calls to support Gold Coast businesses while Brisbane day trippers in COVID-19 lockout

Gold Coast businesses are hoping locals will support them as Brisbane customers are forced to stay away.

Moo Moo The Wine Bar + Grill owners Steven Adams and Autumn Adams. Picture: Jerad Williams

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GOLD Coast businesses glowing from a bumper festive season hope the Premier’s “hard and early” COVID-19 Brisbane lockdown halts a super-contagious mutation of coronavirus, and more crippling restrictions, from spreading south.

Locals who have not been in Brisbane since last Saturday, January 2, are being urged to support local businesses bracing for a potential drop in weekend trade.

The three-day lockdown, to take effect from 6pm Friday was ordered after a quarantine hotel cleaner contracted the “mutant” UK strain of the virus, thought to be 70 per cent more infectious than other strains.

With Queensland’s border remaining closed to Greater Sydney residents, school holiday day-trippers from Brisbane make up a large proportion of revenue for many local businesses.

Gold Coast Central Chamber of Commerce president Martin Hall said the city could be hit by a drop in trade during the three-day lockdown.

Gold Coast hotel bookings remain changeable. Picture: Scott Powick

“It’s going to be hard because we’ve gone from famine to feast and potentially back to famine again,” he said.

“We truly hope that this three-day lockdown is exactly what they say, three days.

“If we can keep it down to that, our resilience is already proven, but any further than that could be crippling for our economy.

“Hopefully three days of bunkering down will be enough to keep it from the Gold Coast.”

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Many Brisbane residents appeared willing to ignore the advice, with some hotels experiencing a sudden increase in bookings ahead of the 6pm deadline.

Congestion on the M1 between Brisbane and the Coast began around lunchtime Friday and was building throughout the afternoon.

Destination Gold Coast chairman Paul Donovan said accommodation providers had given mixed reports, with increases in both cancellations and new bookings.

He said an early lockdown had worked during a recent outbreak in Adelaide and hoped it would be equally successful in Brisbane.

Destination Gold Coast chairman Paul Donovan. Picture: Tertius Pickard

“The government has got to do what they can do to try and contain what’s happening – I can understand that,” he said.

Autumn Adams, co-owner of popular Moo Moo restaurants, said that business closed its Brisbane eatery before lunch on Friday, to avoid a rush of customers hoping to squeeze in one last restaurant meal before the shutdown.

Moo Moo’s Broadbeach restaurant, which employs around 50 people, is to remain open.

Ms Adams took to social media to encourage locals who had been in Brisbane before January 2 to isolate immediately.

“I’ve got family in England and I’m hearing horrible things about what’s been happening over there,” she said.

“We’ve closed Brisbane to try and get ahead of it, and also so our staff members can go and get their affairs in order.

‘it’s devastating to see our business in Brisbane shut down again, not just for the business but for the livelihoods of our staff.”

The lockdown comes as the Gold Coast was slowly clawing its way back after a rough year in 2020. Gold Coast Airport was fairly busy earlier this week. Picture: Scott Powick Newscorp

Ms Adams urged locals to support Gold Coast businesses as they continued to weather the uncertainty.

“Everyone who has been told to isolate should do that – everyone else, come and support local business,” she said.

Mr Hall said the chamber, now the largest in Queensland, could support businesses with advice and also free use of its Safe Visit platform for collecting contact tracing details.

According to Tourism Research Australia, domestic day trippers were spent more than $800 million on the Gold Coast in the year to June 2019, a figure down to $758 million in the COVID-hit year to June 2020.

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