Rooms fill with rush

Bookings through roof

IF planning a cheeky weekend getaway to the hinterland or Tweed, you might need to rush to get a room.

Accommodation providers in the region are celebrating full houses as pent-up demand sees tourists flock to book but it’s still sleepy in tourism hub Surfers Paradise with some operators facing a worrying wait for the phone to ring.

Clouds on Beechmont’s Wilson Gaythwaite, among hinterland firms hard hit by cancellations due to bushfires last year, said they were now booked out well into August.

“We are extremely busy – every day we are booked out.

“This is our busiest time of the year traditionally, but we have been busier. It has been amazing because we don’t have access to our usual overseas market and there hasn’t been interstate travel until now.

“When the border reopens, we will get a lot of interstate visitors.

“We are relieved. We had a tough time with bushfires and then we had floods and then the virus. We were very concerned at one stage and it’s only now people are allowed they have come back in droves.”

Tallebudgera’s Ingleside Stud Farm owner Gabrielle Veitch said they were booked until the beginning of September, with guests mainly from Brisbane and Sunshine Coast.

“It’s going to keep on going,” she said. “For the past couple of months we have had a lot of families and children because they don’t want to stay in high-rises and resorts and they want a bit of country.

“They want to go and collect eggs, pat the horses, have a fire at night and star gaze.”

Rooms are scarce on the Tweed as travellers flocked to the Queensland border ahead of Friday’s reopening. Tweed Harbour Motor Inn owner Carole Goodway said her business had been booked solid after a difficult few months.

She said the influx of visitors began “once (Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk) announced the borders were going to open on July 10”.

“July 9 went absolutely crazy,” she said.

It’s a different story in Surfers, where a Paradise Island Resort spokesman said they were at 20 per cent occupancy.

“We are expecting more people to come in. It has been a really hard time and I have been really worried.”

The Wave Broadbeach manager Dave Turner was reporting 75 per cent occupancy this weekend, still down on this time last year.

“Last weekend we were 100 per cent. It was the first time we were full since COVID-19 hit. But (with the school holidays finishing) we will struggle to meet 50 per cent capacity over the next couple of weeks, last year we were at 80 per cent at the same time.

“Until now it has just been Queenslanders, but the phones have started ringing from out of state, with people wanting to make bookings over the next couple of weeks. (But) waiting in traffic will be a factor that turns people from coming to Queensland.”

Destination Gold Coast CEO Annaliese Battista said accommodation providers appeared to be faring better: “There is significant pent-up demand for a domestic getaway. We are looking forward to welcoming visitors from NSW and other states back to Australia’s favourite playground,” she said.