Covid Restrictions Could See Queensland Businesses Lose Billions

With the school holidays underway, many Queensland tourism operators are busy dealing with an overflood of cancellations.

The latest Covid outbreaks have not only caused border restrictions between New South Wales, but also paused the New Zealand travel bubble. 

Tourism and Transport Forum CEO Margy Osmund said,  

“This is a monster time of the year, this is school holidays, and in the normal courses of events the industry would expect tourist to spend over $10 billion in the next couple of weeks. We think that will drop by 6 billion”.

Andrea Cameron from Brett’s Outback Tasting Adventures is amongst many that have the pandemic crippling their finances and damaging their businesses. 

“The hardest thing is planning. I have no idea what is happening next week, I have no idea what to tell my staff”.

The Federal Labour party has been fearing the escalation of the covid crisis and the impacts it will have on the tourism sector.

Queensland Senator Murray Watt said,

“Unfortunately because of Scott Morison failures, Australia is closing itself down at the very time the rest of the world is opening. That’s terrible news for our tourism industry, lots of opportunities being missed and lots of jobs will go as a result”.

Anyone entering Queensland will need to complete a travel declaration form to enter the state.

There are very few exemptions to that rule, more information on it can be read right here.

Catch the latest headlines and your daily dose of news on The Briefing, with Tom Tilley and Jan Dran, Annika Smethurst and Jamilla Rizvi. Available on Listnr