COOLY’S CASE OF BORDER BLUES
HOTEL bosses on the Queensland-NSW border say Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk’s persistent closure is “killing them”, with normally pumping resorts empty while venues in the Tweed are packing out.
Coolangatta-based Komune Beachclub and Resort owner Tony Cannon said he would normally see interstate visitors travelling up for a warmer winter holiday.
This season he’s relying on local visitors – but numbers aren’t materialising.
“The border closure has been an absolute nightmare for us. It’s killing us. The border control is right behind Komune,” Mr Cannon said.
“It’s just a massive traffic jam. It’s such a turn off that people aren’t bothering coming up.
“We usually get really good occupancy for the next three months from Victoria and New South Wales. About 70 per cent of our customers are south of the border.
“They don’t realise how bad the impact is for our town. So many businesses are struggling.”
Rainbow Bay Resort Holiday Apartments is also based on the Queensland side in Boundary St, Coolangatta. Manager Susan West said she had 20 empty rooms.
“We’re dead as a door knob,” Mrs West said.
“This time of the year we are usually going into our winter-long stay and they are from interstate.
“We have New Zealanders who can’t get across. We’ve got South Australians and Victorians … we can’t get them over the border.
“We’re normally fully booked between July and August with all our long-term guests but they’ve all started to cancel because they can’t get across the border. The beginning of the year, from
February, bookings were amazing.
“But (once forced to close) we started to do a look into what our business has lost. We saw we had lost about $250,000 and we had to stop (thinking about it) because it was just depressing.”
A Surfers Paradise tower manager who declined to be named said a “few” bookings were trickling in but rates were so low it was almost not even worth the effort.
But it is not only the loss of accommodation guests which is killing Komune’s business.
“I live in Salt and all the restaurants and bars are pumping down there because no one can get up to Coolangatta,” Mr Cannon said.
“(NSW bars and restaurants) can have 50 people in each section. Twin Towns, right across from us, can have 300 people. And we can only have 20.”
Mr Cannon said he was keeping 10 staff employed with JobKeeper.
Staff, usually serving up cocktails, have been on the tools helping with a $250,000 renovation of the resort and due to be completed in September.
A spokeswoman for Mantra Twin Towns, based in NSW next to the border, have been taking bookings.
“The impact on the travel industry is devastating,” she said.
“Every time the Government makes a positive statement on the relaxing of restrictions, we see a surge in online activity and interest.”
Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk closed the Queensland borders more than two months ago.
Ms Palaszczuk said the border would be closed for at least this month while Queensland’s Chief Medical Officer Dr Jeannette Young previously said September was a “more realistic” reopening.