Sunshine State COVID Report:
How is your region faring? By Mandy Clarke, Industry Reporter
We asked regional industry leaders and operators across the state how they have been impacted by plummeting visitor numbers and whether they are seeing any signs of early recovery... Bushfires and coronavirus crushed domestic tourism this year, according to the latest monthly snapshot from Tourism Research Australia, Austrade. The statistics confirm what struggling resort managers, accom providers and tourism operators throughout the South East Coast have been telling Resort News for months. The research shows that domestic travel began to wane as early as March when COVID-19 struck and overnight spend fell by 41 percent or $2.6 billion for the whole month. April saw domestic overnight spend plummet to $666 million, this was 91 percent or $7 billion less than in April 2019. The easing of lockdown measures saw May improve slightly but overnight spend fell 82 percent to $1.1 billion, creating a loss of $4.8 billion compared with May 2019. The report shows domestic overnight tourism dropped around $13.7 billion (41 percent) between January and the end of May, due to the one-two punch of the summer bushfires then COVID-19. Easter and school holidays are usually a busy time, but the travel restrictions and uncertainty meant Australians took just 1.6 million overnight trips in April -86 percent or 9.6 million fewer than in April 2019. Without a vaccine, there is no end in sight to the disruption with clusters of the virus still appearing. However, Australia seems to be following the global trend as more recent statistcs from STR show that early, post-pandemic
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Glass House Mountain, supplied by Visit Sunshine Coast
recovery varies widely depending on where your business is located. Gold Coast targets locals and South Australians, but the nation’s favourite playground is suffering. “Some operators are faring better than others,” Destination Gold Coast’s Executive Director of Marketing, Carla Anderson confirmed. “Particularly those with business models that are less reliant on international travellers and those that have strong consumer relationships with the drive market. In the absence of key interstate markets of Sydney and Melbourne, now is the time to encourage Queenslanders to venture here, but also to mobilise Gold Coasters to be tourists in their own city. The Gold Coast’s reputation as a safe destination is a priceless asset to drive momentum for our tourism recovery as travel confidence remains a key influencer in determining booking behaviour at this critical time,” Carla told us. “Our economic modelling shows
that in 2020, COVID-19 will cost Gold Coast’s tourism sector between $3.3 billion to $4.3 billion, with a potential loss of some 6 to 9 million visitors. “Contextually, in 2019 the Gold Coast attracted a record 14.2 million total visitors… so the gravity of this impact to Gold Coast’s visitor economy cannot be understated. “The recovery of the tourism sector is a progressive journey, and will no doubt be determined by key factors that influence travel confidence, which we know will continue to return as restrictions are eased domestically. The Gold Coast has seen gradual growth since July and we’re cautiously optimistic in expecting this upward trend to continue well into next year, although we know it will take some time, before we see domestic visitation return to pre-COVID levels. “A more recent trend we’ve seen is an uptick in travellers booking last minute trips to the Gold Coast to take advantage of value-for-money deals.”
INDUSTRY
Destination Gold Coast told us it is working with a flexible plan to ensure that destination marketing remains agile in a shifting landscape, to target key markets that are most likely to be responsive to our efforts.” Manager of Surfers’ beachfront apartments, Viscount on the Beach, Amber Woodroff confirmed that her resort has been largely empty since mid-March and due to the recent Queensland border closures she now has cancellations for the September and October holidays. She explained: “I have found that all the people who used to come from Victoria, ACT and Tasmania for longer stays over the cooler months are not coming and Queenslanders are not coming to the Gold Coast either. I think many Queenslanders are ‘going bush’ or north, to places they cannot usually afford. “There is a fine line with pricing because you don’t want to go so low that you get the wrong kind of clientele, but you also can’t stay the same,” she admitted. ResortNews | September 2020
