Gold Coast operators Easter weekend loss from COVID-19 lockdown
Gold Coast hospitality operators and a federal Minister are criticising Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk for COVID-19 hampering the struggling sector at Easter.
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GOLD Coast hospitality operators and a federal Minister are criticising Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk for COVID-19 hampering the struggling sector at Easter.
Business operators on Broadbeach’s tourism strip Victoria Ave felt the effects of tourists turning their backs on the Glitter Strip for the Easter long weekend after Great Brisbane’s lockdown last week.
Pandemic restrictions remain in place across the state despite the lockdown ending on Thursday, including having to carry a face mask at all times when outside their principal place of residence.
Base Cafe’s co-owner John Scott said Good Friday trading was as expected but the Broadbeach business took a hit on Saturday and Sunday.
“The masks are the culprits, no one wants to go out having to wear a mask,” he said.
“There’s no tourists here, we’re relying on locals for our trade.
“When there’s a handful of cases out of five million people in the state and the government reacts like this, why would anyone want to leave their home?
“We rely on this period for business but there’s no one here and we have to pay staff $50 an hour.
“We’ll just have to count our losses for the long weekend. Hopefully in the scheme of the whole year it’s not too bad.”
Oasis mall’s Focus Foods owner Dee Testa echoed Mr Scott, describing her trading as “pretty cr*ppy”.
“The weather doesn’t help but I’m sure the lockdown had a big play in it,” Ms Testa said.
“This is one of our biggest weekends, which normally helps us get through the next couple of months.”
Tass and Tina Arhon from Mario’s Restaurant said the number of customers lifted throughout the weekend. As people got more comfortable they started to come out more with no cases happening,” Mr Arhon said.
“We had a lot of Melburnians cancel because of what’s happened but we’ve still had a pretty good mix.”
Mrs Arhon said the empty tables showed how hard the business was being hit during what is expected to be a peak period for the Italian restaurant. Normally … these tables would be choccas,” she said.
“This is holiday time when we expect to pick up in trade but we’re not.”
Federal Defence Minister Peter Dutton, speaking to Sky News after coming out of lockdown, said leaders should be able to deal with an outbreak of few cases.
“There has been from the start, probably even in this latest example, been a bit of panic by Premier Palaszczuk,” Mr Dutton said on Sunday.
“We’re lucky the cases ultimately dwindled and the contact tracing was effective.”
He said the default position should be to keep borders open because people were being vaccinated.
“I hope it is in the past because it’s incredibly disruptive, and it makes it very difficult for people to be able to plan,” Mr Dutton said.
“We want to make sure people’s businesses are viable, particularly over the coming months, and the close of borders in a kneejerk way just does not help that.
“There was a lot of worry from tourism operators, and rightly so, that bookings would fall away dramatically.
“People would obviously not be able to go to restaurants yet all of their shelves are stocked, they had meat and all the food rotting, that otherwise would have been served to people over a very busy period of Easter.”
Queensland recorded no new locally acquired COVID-19 cases on Sunday.
Health Minister Yvette D’Ath said one overseas traveller had tested positive for COVID-19.
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