As a consequence of the Queensland Government’s decision to shut its border to all of New South Wales, businesses located on the Gold Coast have taken a huge financial hit as a result of losing access to customers located in Tweed Heads and the Northern NSW.
A fourth-generation Gold Coast farmer located only kilometres from the hinterland border with NSW says he is afraid his business might not survive another hard closure.
It comes as Gold Coast commerce leaders say the third lock out to NSW in just over one year has “eroded hope” tourists will make plans to holiday on the Gold Coast.
Freeman’s Organic Farm at Currumbin Valley is located only kilometres from the crossing into Murwillumbah, via Tomewin Mountain Road.
“Last time, I estimate my takings were down 30 to 40 percent. I reckon I lost $50,000 and I was going to close my whole business that has been going more than 100 years. The only way I survived was to use my whole Army pension just to pay the staff and keep my little farm shop going and I lived like a church mouse” said fourth-generation farmer David Freeman.
David Freeman said he didn’t know how he would “cope” if the current border closure ran longer than two weeks.
“One part of me wants to close, but I’m a fighter… but I’ll have to probably scale back my operations, but the truth of it is if my trade drops back again, I’ll have to let some of my part-time staff go,” said Mr. Freeman.
Gold Coast Chamber of Commerce president Martin Hall told the media that the recent border closure had crushed “hope” for local businesses.
“Fundamentally, what it’s done for us is just completely eroded and dissolved fully that last bit of hope we had for people to plan ahead. Not that the window was huge, but that window has firmly closed now. So, it’s just that confidence that we’re going to miss now in our businesses and the decisions they make going forward for the foreseeable future, unfortunately” said Gold Coast Chamber of Commerce president Martin Hall.
Gold Coast business leaders in recent weeks anticipated for the return of the border blockades was eventually going to happen considering the number of covid-19 cases circulating around NSW in recent weeks.
Now that it has finally been implemented Gold Coast Chamber of Commerce president Martin Hall is calling for more transparency and consultation from the Queensland state government, adding businesses didn’t have “much fuel left in the tank”.
“Unfortunately, it’s just something we’ve got to stomach. And again, just start taking a few punches to the head, as we have done in the past” said Martin Hall.
New Round of Tasmanian Travel Vouchers Introduced to Clawback Lost Revenue During Covid-19 Pandemic
As a result of new lockdowns taking across NSW and Victoria, tourism operators in Tasmania are once again facing a large number of financial problems. To combat the problem, another round of travel voucher announced to fight the impact of border closures.
However, the format of this year’s Make Yourself at Home vouchers will look different from those of 2020, as Tasmanians will be required to pre-register in a lottery-style system.
The first two rounds of vouchers in 2020 offered rebates of up to $150 for accommodation and $50 for tourism experiences.
In 2020, during the release of last year’s Tasmanian travel vouchers many Tasmanians felt plenty of anger and frustration as the prospective holidaymakers unable to log on to the website or procure one before they ran out.
There was even more frustration from business owners when thousands of vouchers went unspent.
Tasmanian Premier Peter Gutwein told delegates at the State Liberal Conference in Launceston that the recent border closures to Victoria, New South Wales and South Australia had left the state’s tourism and hospitality sectors struggling.
Mr. Gutwein announced that his government would be funding a $7.5 million voucher scheme to run during August and September.
“We’ll be releasing them, I expect, the week after next, once systems and processes are put in place based on learnings from the first voucher program,” said Tasmanian Premier Peter Gutwein.
Although last year’s vouchers were redeemable during the October school holidays, this time they will only be valid during the school term.
The Tourism Industry Council of Tasmania said it was therefore important they be redeemable on weekends.
We’re very keen to see some of the parameters of last year’s scheme reviewed and one of them being we shouldn’t limit this to weekdays,” said the Tourism Industry Council of Tasmania’s executive officer Luke Martin.