Business counts cost of lockdown

BUSINESSES relying on the local and domestic market have struggled through a dull weekend, but with lockdown done and dusted, the question of reopening the state for summer remains.

Tahune Airwalk director Ken Stronach said everyone he knew within the southern Tasmania tourism industry had been “bitterly disappointed” a quarantine breach had plunged them into a snap three-day lockdown.

“In fairly difficult times anyway, to have a further three days taken out of our revenue is pretty drastic,” Mr Stronach said.

He was “relieved” the lockdown would not continue beyond 6pm Monday. He looked forward to hearing Tasmania’s roadmap to reopen the state, after Premier Peter Gutwein said in a press conference on Monday details of the plan would be shared later this week.

“I just hope that locally our government don’t change the goalposts again too often,” Mr Stronach said.

“I think there’ll still be a great amount of hesitancy to travel and still quite a void.”

He believed “huge segments” such as the Asian market, cruise business and other international markets would be lower than the bustling 2018-19 levels for quite some time.

He feared the Australian market would be more likely to spend their dollars overseas, whereas the international market would have greater restrictions entering Australia.

In Hobart’s CBD, Cool Wine independent retail owner Tim Goddard said bottles had flown off shelves amid “berserk” panic buying heading into lockdown.

“Then the Saturday was a complete disaster,” Mr Goddard said.

“Monday’s completely quiet as well. People were unsure of how far they could go to a destination and whether they could get delivery out of a 5km zone.”

Mr Goddard said staff were glad to be rid of the fear of contracting coronavirus.

“We’re pleased that there’s nothing out there in the community,” he said. “Delivery doesn’t always transpire to continuation in sales.”

Mr Goddard said that he hoped the process for casual staff who lost hundreds of dollars in wages over the weekend to access Covid-relief payments would be easy and quick, given that many workers were already under stress juggling bills and university exams. Monsoon Thai owner Avtar Saini said locals in the Battery Point, Hobart and Sandy Bay area flooded the restaurant with support.

“Friday, Saturday, Sunday our takeaway just went off,” Mr Saini said.

“We got everyone together, we cleaned the restaurant, we organised things.”

Mr Saini said that from Monday morning people immediately began calling about dine-in options.

“We have a few people booked in and we’re really looking forward to being back in business,” he said.

“Tassie has been absolutely doing a great job eating local.

“The difficult time has gone by now and I’m expecting a good summer this year,” Mr Saini said.