ELECTION REPORTS
Cancellations stacking up
SYDNEY travellers started cancelling their holidays to the Gold Coast just hours after Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk’s decision to keep the border closed.
Frustrated Village Roadshow Theme Parks COO Bikash Randhawa tweeted on Friday afternoon that “cancellations coming through left right and centre thanks Annastacia MP, merry Christmas to you, this is what you call creating jobs.”
Economic modelling by the Chamber of Commerce and Industry Queensland in June revealed the border closure was costing Queensland businesses almost $17 million a day.
Mr Randhawa, who has been outspoken in his opposition to the border closures, told the Bulletin the Village Roadshow call centre was “chaos”.
“The phones are going off, people are worried and anxious,” he said.
“People keep asking us what will happen so they can rebook their holidays, but we can’t give any answers.
“The issue is we don’t have any clarity.
“Our team in the call centre have been working away all afternoon, people just want to get together with their family for Christmas. There is no certainty of that now, not even a plan.”
On Friday, Ms Palaszczuk announced borders would open to most of NSW from November 3, but 32 local government areas (LGA) in greater Sydney remain banned from entering the state.
Business owners hoping for a November 1 opening to the
IT’S NOT GIVING ANYONE ANY CONFIDENCE THAT THERE IS GOING TO BE ANYTHING HAPPENING IN THE FUTURE. I’M DUMBFOUNDED BY THE DECISION.
DESTINATION GOLD COAST CHAIRMAN PAUL DONOVAN
lucrative Sydney market say they are confused and angered by the decision.
Accommodation Association of Australia CEO Dean Long said the continued block for greater Sydney had “completely destroyed” consumer confidence.
“The impact will be substantial unfortunately,” he said.
Destination Gold Coast (DGC) chairman Paul Donovan said Ms Palaszczuk’s decision to keep out 4.8 million Sydneysiders meant DGC would scale back a promotion campaign into NSW.
“We wait, get our hopes up and think it may happen and ‘Oh, it didn’t happen’,” he said.
“This has been going on for ages. I don’t want to attack (Ms Palaszczuk) because there is no benefit to that but this decision is reverberating through the Gold Coast.”
Mr Donovan says opening up to Woolongong and Newcastle but not Sydney “does nothing for us”.
“It’s not giving anyone any confidence that there is going to be anything happening in the future. I’m dumbfounded by the decision.
“And I don’t know how long the people on the Gold Coast can keep taking this lackk of fd decision-making and lack of planning. We actually need to put systems in place to deal with this — we can’t keep hanging out waiting for a decision day to then be told we are not doing it.”
Main Beach’s Get Wet Surf School owner Kerri Jekyll said: “I got through the winter. I was at peace with that but now we are getting ridiculous.
“As Queensland operators, we all have our COVID-safe plans in place. We all know what to do now. Give us a chance.
“I think people in Victoria and Sydney are starting to lose faith, too. No one will book a holiday to the Gold Coast when it’s so uncertain.”
Aquaduck managing director Sarah Colgate was left speechless when gathering her thoughts about the border call.
“I can’t ... I need a moment to think, I am so frustrated,” she said.
“Sydney is 50 per cent or more of our business, so cutting them out hits us hard.
“It seems to be all about votes. This isn’t a decision one way or the other ... It is arsecovering. We are hanging on by the skin of our teeth. We have gone nine months without income.”
Small bar king Scott Imlach, the man behind hideaway Kitchen, Mr Hezolas and Bine, said he feared interstate tourists would go elsewhere.
“Sydney is what we need to restart tourism. Midweek trade is dire without them,” he said.
“I don’t understand how we can allow a football grand final with 30,000 people, but rule out a whole city.”
Queensland Airports Limited CEO Chris Mills said flights into the Gold Coast would need to be rescheduled.
“There were five Sydney services scheduled next Monday alone, based on the pre
vious 1 November guidance,” he said. “Most of these services are now unlikely to happen.
“We still don’t have a clear road map out of this, and no guidance on when the border will open.
“Sydney remains closed, yet Sydney residents and Queenslanders can mingle in every other part of New South Wales, which is inconsistent.”
Mayor Tom Tate called for the rest of NSW to be allowed in before the summer holidays.
“While I’m pleased that things continue to open up I know how important the Sydney market is to our tourism industry and this is another blow to them,” Cr Tate said. “We need to be guided by the medical advice but I believe our borders need to open to Sydney for the summer holidays.”
Premier Palaszczuk said her stance was consistent with the COVID-19 response plan set out this year.
“That is a strong border decision we have taken every step of the way,” she said.
The Premier said the decision had been based on the advice of the Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young.
Dr Young said the decision to keep greater Sydney locked out came after four new cases of COVID-19 in greater Sydney.
“They have transmission and they don’t know where it is coming from,” Dr Young said. “Yesterday they had four new cases and one of the cases they could not link to any other known clusters.”