Doom and gloom in Queensland as Easter looms

Queensland businesses are already counting the cost as tourists and diners cancel holiday and restaurant bookings.

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk. Picture: Dan Peled

Queensland businesses are already counting the cost of Brisbane’s snap three-day lockdown as tourists and diners cancel holiday and restaurant bookings and business owners brace for extended restrictions.

Travellers have already scratched flights into Brisbane and accommodation bookings have also recorded cancellations but it is the unknown effect the lockdown will have on the Easter long weekend and the school ­holidays that has business owners most worried.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said the prospect of the lockdown going beyond 5pm on Thursday would depend on “what we see over the next 24 to 48 hours” but acknowledged it was likely that more cases of ­community-based transmission would be detected.

“In terms of the Greater Brisbane region, we just have to take this day by day,” she said.

“The big question will be whether or not we see unlinked community transmission.”

Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young has not ruled out extending the lockdown beyond Greater Brisbane. Gladstone, the Gold Coast and Hervey Bay regions are all on high alert after it was revealed some of the people infected with the virus had been there before testing positive.

Deputy Police Commissioner Steve Gollschewski warned all Brisbane-based holiday-makers against leaving the city before the lockdown ended.

Mr Gollschewski said there was no “ring of steel” preventing people from leaving Brisbane but warned there would be random intercepts of vehicles.

More than 75 flights into Brisbane were cancelled on Tuesday and more cancellations were expected throughout the week, although weekend flights remained unaffected on Tuesday afternoon as travellers and airlines held out hope the lockdown would end.

“While the majority of our services are operating today, we are making some changes to our forward schedule for flights in and out of Brisbane to better reflect demand for travel and changing booking trends,” a Virgin Australia Group spokesman said.

Since the lockdown was announced on Monday, accommodation provider Quest lost more than $40,000 in bookings from its Ipswich and Gold Coast hotels.

Ipswich, inside the lockdown zone, received more than 120 cancellations in 24 hours, while on the Gold Coast, outside of the locked-down area, Quest Robina received more than 100 cancellations in that same period, primarily from interstate guests.

Quest spokesman David Mansfield said the situation was causing headaches for guests. “With the recent loss of Job­Keeper, the continued border volatility places our Queensland franchisees in an even more precarious position and irrevocable damage will be done if it persists,” Mr Mansfield said.

Gold Coast beachside restaurant Rick Shores has been able to fill most of its cancellations from Brisbane diners with local guests, but restaurant manager Michael Leopold feared the lockdown would extend to the coast.

“The mood at the moment is sober,” Mr Leopold said. “It doesn’t have the spark it did last week. On paper, Easter looks promising but that could change on a whim … when the Premier does her morning conference.”

Mr Leopold said a lockdown on the coast would be devastating for the hospitality industry.