Tough restrictions for Phillip Island despite no active cases in weeks
Phillip Island hasn’t had a COVID-19 case in weeks, and business owners are warning restrictions in the tourist destination need to ease soon, or many may struggle to stay afloat.
Bass Coast News
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Business owners in Phillip Island are hoping restrictions will ease sooner rather than later as there have been no active COVID-19 cases in weeks.
Phillip Island residents say it’s been a tough year for businesses and the hardship will continue if restrictions don’t ease by summer.
Phillip Island Winery owner Misha Say believes that if the hospitality rules are kept in place, it will affect her business long term.
“70 per cent of our yearly trade is done in summer so it’s massive,” Ms Say said.
“If that turnover isn’t there or we can’t do the numbers that we are used to doing over the summer then that will have a huge impact”.
On Monday, Daniel Andrews announced a new $290 million support package that will provide relief for sole traders and prepare Victorian businesses for increased level of safe outdoor dining.
This includes $58 million for businesses to buy umbrellas, outdoor furniture and other essentials to cater for this change.
Ms Say is grateful for any sort of support as it makes a huge difference to how they are able to operate.
“Given our wide open spaces, but limited amount of outdoor furniture or weather proof areas, being able to furnish our these spaces will greatly increase our ability to service more customers, which at the end of the day is the difference between us making money and not,” she said.
Although Ms Say has “backed the government” in all the decisions that have been made, she believes tough restrictions in regional Victoria seem “a little bit unfair”.
“I’m not a health an expert but it seems crazy we can’t open up regionally if there has been no cases,” she said.
“We would love the government to put a bit more confidence in us being able to keep our patrons safe”.
According to the Department of Health and Human Services Victoria, there has been no active COVID-19 cases in the Bass Coast since August 28.
There has been a total of 11 COVID-19 cases in the Bass Coast with an estimated residential population of 36,320.
Destination Phillip Island General Manager Kim Storey said the region has reported a loss of 25 per cent of tourism spend across the markets of international and domestic overnight and domestic day spend compared to the same period in 2019.
Visitor numbers were down by 34.6 per cent for the quarter with early research suggesting there will be an estimated economic loss of 51 per cent because of COVID-19.
“The region is highly dependant on tourism in Victoria, we have the lowest number of permanent residents to visitors in the state and the visitor economy has been devastated,” Ms Storey said.
“We normally attract over 500,000 international day visitors each year and over 60,000 staying overnight but this market is gone and we are unsure when it will reopen”.
The 2020 Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix was due to be held at the Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit from October 23-25.
Ms Storey said the major event was a huge loss as it delivers direct income to the circuit, accommodation and hospitality venues over several days.
She said the Phillip Island tourism industry has been hit with negative impacts since January when Victoria experienced bushfires and smoke impacts across the state.
Phillip Island Helicopters business manager Lauren Mitchell said her business has been closed off and on since then.
“January is our most busy month and we were grounded for about a week due to residual smoke because of the fires,” Ms Mitchell said.
The business was then closed from March 23 until June 27 and reopened for three weeks before the next lockdown was bought in but have been closed ever since.
“Approximately 35 to 40 per cent of our customers are overseas travellers so come the travel band in February, we automatically lost that business,” Ms Mitchell said.
She believes they will have to look at new avenues to attract visitors from different sectors when they reopen.
“Phillip Island has a lot of international visitation so we will have to focus more on the domestic market then we probably have ever before,” she said.
Ms Mitchell said they have a “generous landlord” who negotiated their rent and is very grateful for jobkeeper.
“Without jobkeeper we probably wouldn't be surviving,” she said.
“Like everyone we are doing it tough but are looking forward reopening and getting back to where we were before”.
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Contact Brooke at brooke.grebert-craig@news.com.au
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