Drive Car Hire has majority of bookings cancelled due to Tasmania’s border restrictions

A Hobart hire car company says the majority of its bookings for the month of July have been cancelled, as Tasmania’s border remains closed to NSW, Victoria and South Australia.

A Hobart hire car company says it’s lost about 80 per cent of its bookings this month as a result of border closures, with key interstate tourism markets locked out of Tasmania.

The state’s border has been closed to New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia due to Covid-19 outbreaks, and Anna Donovan, of Drive Car Hire, said her business had since been hit with a wave of cancellations.

“It’s a pretty significant impact at the moment, for the short-term,” she said. “The next couple of weeks we’re looking very sleepy.”

“Cancellations are spreading into August. We’re seeing a lot of fear and concern about how things might look in September, but (we’re) still seeing good forward bookings from October onwards and into the summer months.”

“We’re becoming more familiar with the concept (of border closures), I guess. If anything, it’s a blessing that it’s happening in our quieter months.

“We always predict a downturn over winter and if (the borders were going to be closed) again, this is the best time for Tasmania.

“While it was really disappointing to lose that school holiday traffic from the mainland, it’s off the back of a pretty decent summer. So we’re in a better position to weather the storm than we were this time last year.”

Hire car local business

A recent Snap Business Sentiment Survey of about 400 Tasmanian tourism operators, conducted by Tourism Industry Council Tasmania, found that a worrying 48 per cent of respondents believed the restrictions on travellers from NSW and Victoria would result in their businesses losing more than 50 per cent of forward bookings and business activity.

However, 41 per cent of respondents said business had been better than expected in the first six months of the year, a factor which TICT boss Luke Martin said could sandbag the impact of border restrictions.

“There are some businesses that have some … unexpected revenue - more than they thought - and have got a bit of a buffer,” he told ABC Radio on Thursday.

Mr Martin said if lockdowns interstate went on for “weeks and months”, it would be “alarming” for Tasmania’s tourism industry, due, in part, to the fact that the JobKeeper scheme was no longer in place to protect operators and their staff.

Of the operators surveyed, 35 per cent said they would maintain current staffing levels at this stage, based on their current business expectations over the next few weeks, while 29 per cent said they would likely reduce staff.

Ms Donovan said Drive Car Hire was optimistic it would experience another strong summer this year.

“We just need to see more confidence from travellers, knowing that they can plan a trip with confidence that they’ll actually be able to go ahead and travel,” she said.