OUT IN THE WEST
for the region. I’m really looking forward to seeing it happen.
Another tourism hit?
WHAT is the outlook for the annual grey nomad migration into North Queensland’s coastal and inland regions tourism this season, given the bushfires and the topsy-turvy share market?
And now the World Health Organisation has declared the virus that has killed more than 4000 people worldwide, a global pandemic.
We have already canvassed in this column the bushfire impact in terms of grey nomads opting to support those regions brought to their knees by the fires. Now, on top of this is coronavirus and the hit the share market is taking as a result (although anyone with toilet paper shares will be laughing all the way to the bank). Many grey nomads, heavily invested in shares, will be watching their superannuation going south faster than a carload of hoons heading for Home Hill in a stolen Commodore. I’ve only spoken to one caravan park operator this week who is looking at a negative market.
Roslyn Smith who has been at the Karumba Point Holiday and Tourist Park for six years said her bookings looked like being down this season. “At this point it’s not good. We’ve had cancellations due to the cost of travel and of course so many of the grey nomad market are getting a lot older. They’re in their 80s and can’t always travel. Others ring up and cancel because of health issues. We’ve had droughts, fires, floods and now coronavirus. Hopefully this dark cloud will pass and things will improve again,” she said.
Holidays at home
DAVID Birch, CEO of Secura Lifestyle, which operates The Lakes Currajong and Magnetic Gateway holiday parks in Townsville said at this stage it was still too early to say what the long-term impacts would be on domestic travel “but we expect many seniors will stay alert for any developments”.
He said his company had not experienced any out of the ordinary cancellations at this stage.
“The common feedback we are getting is that while many seniors are postponing overseas trips, they are still choosing to holiday in
Australia. We’ve been seeing ordinary Australians starting to filter back in support of towns devastated by bushfires, which is encouraging to see.”
Lindsay from the Big 4
Townsville Woodlands Holiday
Park said she was hoping that more people would travel nationally this year rather than internationally. “We’ve got some good bookings already. We think this year will be pretty good,” she said.
Brett Haupt, owner of the Tailors Beach Caravan Park at Tailors
Beach near Ingham said he was already nearly booked out for Easter and that his bookings for July and August were nearly at 100 per cent. The park, which is on the Victoria Creek inlet, is popular with grey nomads for its fishing and crabbing. “They are a good bunch who come here. They get their bream, whiting, fingermark and grunter and the odd barra,” he said.
Brett said he thought, given the volatility of the share market, that many of his clients would be “watching their pennies on the way up”. I think they will be doing a bit of free camping on the way north. For us it looks like being a normal season … so far,” he said.
Winton looking good
PAUL Neilsen owns and operates the wildly successful Tattersalls Hotel in Winton.
Over the road from the pub he has a 50 site caravan park with cabins. Winton is a popular destination with the grey nomads. Apart from the spectacular scenery the town is on a three-ways, which leads west to Boulia via the Kennedy Developmental Rd, northwest to Kynuna, Cloncurry and the Gulf Country via the Landsborough Highway and north to Hughenden and beyond via the northern section of the Kennedy Developmental Rd. Paul’s phone is ringing off the hook every day for advance bookings. He’s expecting 100 per cent occupancy for the season.
Wait and see approach
APART from its fishing, grey nomads are drawn to Karumba for its dramatic, evening sunsets over the Gulf of Carpentaria. But are they enough? Lucy Brown at the Karumba Point Sunset Caravan Park thinks they are, but is waiting to see if the fires and the share market will affect her trade. “It’s difficult to say, but really, I don’t think the fires and the share market will have an impact. What does concern me is that a lot of grey nomads are now ageing and getting too old to travel. People are getting married older and have children later in life. So, now, they can’t retire when they are 45 or 50 like people used to. What we are finding is that we are getting more and more families travelling Australia.
These are people who are taking a gap year from work and are taking their children around Australia”.
Business as usual
BOWEN, with its eight caravan parks, glorious beaches and 355 picture postcard, sunshiny days a year, is always one of the north’s leading destinations for grey nomads. And this year it does not look as though it will be any different. The town’s visitor information bureau reported this week that all van parks are filling up with bookings.
Steve Paul who operates the Bowen Tropical Beach Holiday Park said it was “business as usual”.
“We are close to 100 per cent booked now with pre-bookings,” he said. Steve said he felt that if anything the coronavirus scare, which is an ill-wind for many tourism sectors, might just prove to be a positive for the nation’s caravan parks.
So far, so good
ALICIA Tempany from the Gulf Country Caravan Park at Karumba said she was hoping for a strong season. “Our booking are all right still at this stage,” she said.