Entrada Travel Group GM Sonjha Forbes focused on surviving the COVID crisis
Thrown into the deep end of the worst crisis the Cairns diving industry ever faced, Sonjha Forbes’ thoughts turned instantly to survival.
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THROWN into the deep end of the worst crisis the Cairns diving industry has ever faced, Sonjha Forbes’ thoughts turned instantly to survival.
A lover of sport from a young age, Ms Forbes turned her passion toward diving when she came to the Far North.
“I arrived in Cairns in mid-2001 and started working at Divers Den in March 2002,” she said.
“My life before Cairns and the marine tourism and diving industry is a very distant memory, but I spent five fantastic years working for the Seisia Island Council up on Cape York.”
Though she doesn’t dive as often these days, Ms Forbes has always held a passion for the open waters and has a keen interest in fly fishing.
“My partner and I have fly fished lots of amazing places around the world – but nothing beats the beautiful GBR,” she said.
“We just need a few more days with 10 knots (or less) of wind so we can get out there and enjoy it more.”
She has shared her love of the Reef with her family, getting her niece and nephews involved with the Divers Den Scuba Kids program last school holidays.
“One of them came twice, he loved it so much,” she said.
“It was a real blast watching them have so much fun in the scuba environment.”
When COVID struck, the tourism industry was battered hard, diving companies especially so.
Divers Den has more than 100 of its employees on JobKeeper.
Like many business owners, Ms Forbes was faced with a difficult task at the beginning of the fallout – having to stand down staff.
“After the initial feeling of shock, my mind quickly turned to the survival of all our TNQ businesses as the enormity of pandemic unfolded,” she said.
“Unfortunately, this meant some incredibly tough decisions had to be made and the lowest point was having to stand down all but a very small handful of staff.
“We’re a tight-knit team and this was truly devastating feeling to be the person delivering that news, and I will be forever grateful for everyone’s understanding.”
With restrictions beginning to ease, Ms Forbes said businesses were now in a position where they had little to lose and much more to gain.
“The only options for everyone are to adapt and do it fast,” she said.
“Find the things that you thought would be great and maybe have not had the time to refine and just go for it.
“JobKeeper has of course been a complete godsend and with the announcement of its extension, that will go a long way to assisting the retention of our important and key staff.
“In our industry, the support we need is around ensuring that we can maintain our assets and infrastructure during the down time.
“With no real revenues to speak of there just isn’t the fiscal reach to ensure that all of our assets maintain their readiness for work when tourism makes a comeback.
“Maintaining big boats and moorings assets, to ensure they remain compliant to our strictly regulated industry, is very costly indeed.
“Support through funding, grants and more low interest loans would go a long way to help us through this and would benefit us and the greater marine tourism industry here in Cairns and Port Douglas.
“The natural knock-on of that is all the ancillary small and medium sized businesses who are built around servicing our requirements are recipients of that support as well.
“Ensuring that our industry is still here and ready to operate when we come out the other side of this is imperative for the economy of our region.”
Ms Forbes said even with all the difficulties the industry was facing at the moment, it was all worth it for the ability to share her love of the Reef with people.
“I think the arrival and launching of any new asset is the thing that resonates memories with me the most,” she said.
“The planning and effort that goes into building a boat and then when they finally arrive and you get to see your customers and your crew enjoying it.
“That puts a really big smile on my face.”
Originally published as Entrada Travel Group GM Sonjha Forbes focused on surviving the COVID crisis
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