Coronavirus: Businesses sink as bolted gates keep interstaters at bay

News the Qld border may not reopen until September has killed off hope 2020 can be salvaged by the winter tourism season.

Noosa paddleboard instructor James Howard-Clarke has been hard hit by the loss of tourists since Queensland shut its borders. Picture: Glenn Hunt

In a regular year, James Howard-Clarke would be spending this time regrouping after a busy April and preparing his Noosa stand-up paddleboard hire and coaching business for the usual influx of tourists from the southern states.

This year, he’s drawn a fraction of his usual income and is unsure of the future, particularly if the Queensland border remains shut to interstate visitors.

The announcement by Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk on Monday that the border may not reopen until September all but killed off hope that 2020 could be salvaged by the winter tourism season.

“June-July holidays I usually expect a bit of action, but this year I don’t know what to expect,” Mr Howard-Clarke told The Australian.

“I don’t expect much.

“Domestic tourists are Noosa’s biggest market. Usually we get a lot of visitors from NSW and Victoria.”

A regular April would usually bring in up to $15,000. This year, all but $1000 worth of bookings were cancelled.

“Effectively, April was a write-off,” Mr Howard-Clarke said. “I had to refund all the pre-bookings for April, which is definitely one of the best months of the year.

“It was a non-event.”

Despite the setbacks, Mr Howard-Clarke hopes the effective cancellation of international tourism will lead to Australians spending their money at home.

But without open borders, that will be left to Queenslanders, who tend to holiday less at the beach in winter than their interstate counterparts.

Mr Howard-Clarke said small businesses had been suffering for a while and COVID-19 was the nail in the coffin for many operators.

“Mum and dad businesses who don’t qualify for JobKeeper are looking at next to no income for the past two months, and maybe for another two or three,” he said.

“That’s pretty hard. My business has been here for a pretty long time, and I have low overheads, so I think we will be OK, but that’s only because we do some other things as well.”

Newly elected Noosa mayor Clare Stewart said local businesses were working hard to be ready for when Queensland’s borders eventually reopened, with interstate travel “very important” for the Sunshine Coast beach mecca. “We’re one of the few destinations in Australia that’s iconic and well-known across Australia; people from all over the country want to come here, as do our local drive market,” she said.

She hopes Noosa tourism will bounce back quickly.

“We’re green and clean, we’ve had no cases in six or seven weeks, and we’ve only had 15 cases from locals, 10 from overseas,” she says. “We’ve really been one of the areas least- affected with COVID … when we’re able to reopen, we’ll be well and truly ready.”

Queensland Tourism Industry Council chief executive Daniel Gschwind said some tourism businesses would not survive an extra two months without interstate visitors.