Closure delivers a ‘body blow’ to Gold Coast operators

For Linda Spiteri and her usually thriving stand-up paddleboard business on the Gold Coast, 2020 has been her annus horribilis.

‘This is the worst year yet’: Caitlin Miller steadies the board for Gold Coast local Sophie Wake and her daughter Elaina, five, on Sunday. Picture: Lyndon Mechielsen

For Linda Spiteri and her usually thriving stand-up paddleboard business on the Gold Coast, 2020 has been her annus horribilis.

Ms Spiteri has owned Go Vertical at Surfers Paradise – which runs lessons and hires kayaks and SUPs — for nine years, and she groans as she reflects on the year that was.

“This is the worst year yet,” she told The Australian.

Her business was hit early, and hard, by the global COVID-19 pandemic, losing up to 40 per cent of its customers when Chinese tourists were shut out of Australia.

It was forced to close for seven weeks in March, when restrictions tightened, and reopened on a small scale in May, but often didn’t have enough demand to give her employees more than a few hours’ work each shift.

“Surfers Paradise is our main clientele, we’re walking distance from the high-rises, and it was like a ghost town (for months),” Ms Spiteri said.

To make matters worse, in August she broke her arm, and her casual instructors — including Caitlin Miller who was on deck for a busy and sunny shift on Sunday — were not eligible for the federal government’s JobKeeper subsidy. The Gold Coast was also hit by savage storms last weekend, and the waterways are now recovering.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk’s announcement on Sunday afternoon that Queensland’s border would be closed to residents of greater Sydney would have a “huge impact,” Ms Spiteri said.

“As much as I understand why they are doing it, it doesn’t make it easier. This is the time we make our money, we struggle through winters in order to have great summers.”

“I’m really sad to hear that (the virus) has reared its ugly head again.”

She’s hoping her summer season can be rescued by locals and domestic tourists from elsewhere in Australia flocking to the Gold Coast and spending their cash at small tourism operations like hers.

Queensland Tourism Industry Council chief executive Daniel Gschwind said the year had been a “horror show” and the industry was “punch drunk”.

“It’s just devastating for the tourism industry, just as we were building a bit of optimism and enthusiasm,” Mr Gschwind said. “It’s a body blow to that confidence. It comes at a terrible time of course, it’s like having your Christmas gift snatched away from you from under the tree.”

Queensland’s borders only reopened to greater Sydney and Victoria on November 1, sparking a rush of accommodation and flight bookings.