OPENING HOURS SLIDE

SOME of Queensland’s biggest theme parks have slashed opening hours as the pandemic continues to wreak havoc with the tourism industry.

Uncertainty over travel and border closures have taken a toll on interstate and long-distance tourism with visitor numbers for some of our biggest tourist destinations plummeting in the past 12 months.

With the summer holiday peak season now passed, Gold Coast tourism icons Wet’n’Wild, Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary and WhiteWater

World have decided to shut the gates several days a week while Aussie World on the Sunshine Coast has reduced trade to five days a week.

The changes come just over a month out from the planned end of the JobKeeper program amid predictions it could send up to a quarter of Queensland’s 40,000 tourism businesses broke.

Gold Coast water parks have previously closed for periods in the dead of winter, but closures at the height of summer are unheard of.

Village Roadshow, operates four Gold which Coast theme parks, and Ardent Leisure, operator of Dreamworld and WhiteWater World, received multimillion-dollar loans from the state government last year after being duped at the 11th hour by the federal government.

WhiteWater World, the sister park of Dreamworld, has reverted to opening Friday to Sunday until the Easter holidays, while Wet’n’Wild (Thursday to Sunday) and Currumbin Sanctuary (Thursday to Monday) also reduced opening days.

There are no plans for changes to annual passes as holders can still visit other theme parks where trading hours have not been reduced.

Queensland Tourism Industry Council CEO Daniel Gschwind said the moves showed a return to business as normal was still a long way off.

“It’s just an illustration of how much businesses big and small are struggling right now,” he said. “The uncertainty around travelling and tourism has forced businesses to have a long look at how they do business now.”

Queensland Tourism Minister Stirling Hinchliffe said operators needed some hope from the federal government.

“Theme parks show once again why the federal government can’t cut JobKeeper without targeted assistance to tourism operators while overseas visitors are locked out and international travel is in turmoil,” he said.

“The federal government risks turning the end of JobKeeper into a jobs killer.”

Currumbin Sanctuary CEO Michael Kelly said the move would help the park remain viable.

“By consolidating … into a five-day-a-week operation, we are still able to deliver the high level of service expected by our guests, while ensuring that we reduce our operating costs to help financially protect our important community asset into the future,” he said.

Dreamworld chief operating officer Greg Yong said the decision followed an operational review across the business as a result of COVID-19.

“The warmer months typically record higher visitation in the water park,” he said.

A spokesman for Village Roadshow, the operator of Wet’n’Wild, said the change was “to align with visitation trends” outside peak periods.