Whitsunday tourism operators feel the impacts of another Covid-19 lockdown

While it’s still too early to say what the latest lockdown means for the winter tourist season in the Whitsundays, local accommodation providers have seen immediate effects.

Long Island is one Whitsundays tourism destination expected to see fewer visitors this winter as a result of the Victorian lockdown. Picture: Supplied.

Whitsunday tourism operators gearing up for a bumper winter season have been dealt another blow with the announcement of the latest Victorian Covid-19 lockdown.

Island resorts have been inundated with phone calls in the hours since the announcement, with Hamilton Island’s reservations line informing callers of “unusually high call volumes and long wait times” as a result of the new interstate travel restrictions.

Hamilton Island staff were unable to comment this afternoon, but Daydream Island and Long Island accommodation providers reported receiving multiple calls from Victorians seeking to either cancel or change their reservations.

Daydream Island is understood to have received 10 booking change requests within hours of the Queensland’s border closure.

Long Island’s Palm Bay Resort general manager Mariella Tusino said business had been “impacted big time” by the announcement, with eight to 10 June booking cancellations in the space of a few hours.

“We always offer a change of dates but some people prefer to cancel,” Ms Tusino said.

“It is disappointing, but what can you do.

“We’ve been through it all before.”

Trying to stay positive, Ms Tusino said the resort was “quite full anyway” with a waiting list of potential bookings to replace those lost.

She added being a bit less busy over the coming weeks would ease the pressure on the resort as it attempted to resolve staff shortages.

But she was hopeful bookings would “pick up” again before too long.

“Hopefully we won’t suffer too much. It’s just happened, so it’s all looking a bit dramatic at the moment.

“But it’s also kind of a bit of relief because we have been having staffing issues and this gives us time to find more people to cover the busy times.”

Tourism Whitsundays CEO Tash Wheeler said it was too soon to tell how much of an impact the lockdown would have on winter bookings, but with Victoria being a key market in the colder months, operators were “certainly hoping it [the outbreak] passes fast and doesn’t have a long tail”.

“It’s hard to tell right now when things have only just changed, but going on past data, 30 to 35 per cent of our winter bookings come from Victoria, and we were hoping that was going to be higher this year with filling the void without international travel,” she said.

Ms Wheeler had not received any panicked calls from industry, which she saw as a good sign, but said she had heard that four guests had cancelled their reservations for this weekend’s White On Whitehaven Long Lunch.

“We’ve still got about 800 guests coming from all around [Australia] and we’re hoping most of them are already here and have been here long enough that they won’t be affected,” she said.

Originally published as Whitsunday tourism operators feel the impacts of another Covid-19 lockdown