Making a big splash
Coronavirus fears have Australians checking in here
LUCIANA Uhlemann and her daughter Mila, 6, on the water slide at Big4 Ingenia Cairns Coconut Resort are from Sydney. They are typical of Australian travellers making the trek to the Far North instead of going overseas on holiday.
AUSTRALIANS are dumping their overseas travel plans and heading to Cairns, with one local resort nearly booked out for the Easter break.
“We’re almost full,” Big4 Ingenia Holidays Cairns Coconut Resort manager Richard Yazbeck said. “We used to get a longer lead time, but it’s filling up quickly with people making last-minute decisions to travel in Australia, rather than overseas. It’s not just us noticing it.”
The 11ha resort on the south side of Cairns has 200 camping, caravan and motorhome sites, as well as 140 cabins from budget to top shelf.
And all were being snapped up, Mr Yazbeck said.
“We’ve seen an increase in bookings coming through. We are a big fan of domestic travel here. We find Australians are a large proportion of our market. We’re looking very strong for April onwards around the entire park,” Mr Yazbeck said.
Sydney couple Luciana and Mark Uhlemann didn’t bother waiting until Easter to ditch their Asian holiday in favour of Cairns and have big plans for their week-long stay, visiting all the major attractions.
The couple had intended taking children Mila, 6, and Leo, 8, to Asia for a cultural experience, catching the cherry blossoms in Japan before taking in Vietnam and Cambodia.
“We were thinking about booking in January, but didn’t know what to do because of coronavirus, so waited,” Ms Uhlemann said.
“In the middle of February, we decided to book everything for here. We flew from Sydney, hired a campervan and are cruising down to Sydney.”
Ms Uhlemann said they moved from Germany to Australia three years ago.
“In those three years, we’ve never been to Cairns and it was a great opportunity,” she said.
“We’re doing a crocodile cruise and (seeing the) Daintree rainforest. We want to go on Skyrail, Kuranda train and we’ll be going out to the Great Barrier Reef.
“We have a week here and will do lots of things.”
Ms Uhlemann is a member of Big4 Holiday Parks and discovered a brochure about Cairns Coconut Resort while staying at Bonny Hills in New South Wales.
“I thought it looked good for the kids. Water is a big deal for them. They’ve got waterslides here and they have been sliding all day. They love it,” she said.
Ms Uhlemann said the four-week holiday was organised once she got long-service leave. “We had everything set up. School gave permission to go away. We just changed the destination,” she said.
Mr Yazbeck said Cairns Coconut Resort had a lot of repeat guests – “what we call our annual guests – they like to come every year”.
And not just grey nomads. “There are more younger families coming through in caravans and they’re home schooling kids,” he said.
Mr Yazbeck said the park could cater for up to 1200 people and was almost at capacity for Easter.
“The rest of the year is also looking very positive,” he said.
IN THE MIDDLE OF FEBRUARY, WE DECIDED TO BOOK EVERYTHING FOR HERE. WE FLEW FROM SYDNEY, HIRED A CAMPERVAN AND ARE CRUISING DOWN TO SYDNEY
MARK UHLEMANN