Visitors urged to keep Tropical North Queensland bookings

Visitors with existing bookings to Tropical North Queensland are being urged not to cancel as the region is set to weather a $125 million dollar loss for December and January.

Cairns is open for business and there is no need to cancel holiday plans, according to the Tourism Tropical North Queensland boss, after the industry recorded a $125 million loss.

CEO Mark Olsen is urging visitors with existing bookings to Tropical North Queensland not to cancel with most accommodation open for business and tours resuming.

Community message boards and travel groups have been inundated with questions from travellers asking if they should still travel up to the region for their Christmas holidays and the answer from operators and locals is — yes.

Already low bookings and cancellations are estimated to lead to a $125 million loss for usually busy December-January period.

Mr Olsen said it was vital the region did not lose existing bookings and people still made forward bookings for January.

“Contact your accommodation provider to check they are open for business and please continue with your plans for a summer holiday in the tropics,” he said.

Good news is the cairns airport is open however you might need a transfer by sea to get to Port Douglas you know who to call as there are us and other operators doing transfers already from Cairns to Port Picture Facebook/Brett Wright

“The Reef Fleet has resumed operations showcasing the Great Barrier Reef and today Skyrail Rainforest Cableway has opened so people can experience the might of the Barron Falls in its full glory in one of the world’s oldest rainforests,” he said.

“Many more experiences have opened including the Cairns Aquarium, while others such as Kuranda day tours are available from tomorrow and Paronella Park resumes on Friday.”

The Captain Cook Highway has reopened between Palm Cove and Cairns, along with the Kuranda Range Road and the Gillies Highway.

There are two boat services a day between Cairns and Port Douglas while the coastal road is being repaired and the inland road to Port Douglas is expected to reopen by the weekend.

“Mission Beach has been unaffected with their newest product, The Elandra, welcoming its first guests,” Mr Olsen said.

“Tropical North Queensland operators have already lost $60 million in bookings and are likely to lose $125 million over December and January, which represents 15 to 20 per cent of total expenditure over those months.

Rattle N Hum restaurant manager Alannah Micallef said Port Douglas is open for business after TC Jasper has now passed. Picture: Liam Kidston

“We are very concerned about the lack of bookings that would normally be coming in now for January and the level of cancellations that we are seeing for January.

“Our community is pulling together with emergency service providers to help the people who have been impacted by flooding, but many of these people are small business owners or employees in the tourism industry who depend on visitors for their income.

“Our operators rely on summer school holiday visitation to get through the quieter months in February and March.”

Mr Olsen said the need to help the more heavily impacted communities further before tourism could return to areas such as the Daintree.
“Daintree is where our hearts are at, we have had three significant landslides between the ferry and communities in Wujal Wujal and Cape Tribulation,” he said.

Those have got to be cleared, the ferry has crossed for the first time today and we have to clear those landslips and remove the large debris and help the community connect first.

“Now is not the time for tourism in the Daintree and to go sticky beaking,” Mr Olsen said.

“It’s a time to be supporting the community and jobs, they need food, supplies and fuel.

“A big shout out to the guys from Ocean safari running rigid inflatable boats ferrying fuel to those communities in Cape Tribulation.”

Originally published as Visitors urged to keep Tropical North Queensland bookings