Last-minute holiday bookings have become available on the Sunshine Coast as border chaos sparked by Sydney’s northern beaches cluster forced holiday cancellations.
With only days to Christmas, some hotel rooms, apartments and houses are up for grabs again, and operators anticipate more cancellations after the New Year.
Meanwhile Airbnb has a handful of houses for those willing to pay last-minute premium prices, with one place at Golden Beach advertised for $1000 a night and another for $800 a night at Tewantin.
Tourism chiefs say continual border changes were creating huge uncertainty in tourism as people could not feel confident about planning an interstate trip.
People from Greater Sydney must undergo 14 days’ hotel quarantine in Queensland from 1am on Tuesday December 22.
Queenslanders returning home have been given until Tuesday 1am also before they will be forced into government-arranged quarantine.
However the fallout on holiday bookings has not been dramatic because Queenslanders had snapped up most of the rooms before the borders were recently opened.
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“Some operators have already reported cancelled bookings, but the impact is likely to be lessened because borders were only opened to Sydney and Victoria just three weeks ago, and by that time much of the accommodation over the Christmas holiday period had been booked by Queenslanders,” said Andrew Fairbairn from Visit Sunshine Coast.
“For instance, most of the camping grounds had been fully booked by November, and there was only a small amount of hotel inventory still available for interstate travellers.”
Mooloolaba Holidays has about 70 nights available across its portfolio from now until January 10 – with prices ranging from $240 to $1100 a night -.but many are single-night bookings.
An apartment at Beachport in Mooloolaba was available for Christmas and Boxing Days for $330 a night while a room at Riverside, available for five nights from Tuesday, has been advertised for $280 a night.
Mooloolaba Holidays senior property manager Sandy Robson said only a handful of Sydney bookings had been cancelled so far.
“We do have quite a few Sydney bookings in January so depending on what happens between now and then there could be more cancellations,” she said.
“We were doing a ring around and actually quite a few people managed to get over the border early and are just staying somewhere else until their booking,” she said.
Adam Smith, from South Pacific Resort and Spa Noosa, said cancellations had been placed back online and had not yet been snapped up.
“We have had some cancellations over Christmas and New Year and the best way to book is go directly to our website,” he said.
Mr Fairbairn said the greatest impact of the border changes was the uncertainty it created which left people unsure as to whether to plan a holiday interstate.
“What the border closure will do is create further uncertainty,” Mr Fairbairn said.
“Until the situation is fully under control, interstate visitors will be reluctant to book too far out and we need interstate visitors for longer-stays and also non-holiday periods.
“We are hopeful that NSW health authorities will be able to get on top of the Sydney Northern Beaches situation fairly quickly so that the Sydney market can be re-opened for the second half of January, when availability is more widespread.
“Our industry really needs an extended period of travel certainty, so our operators can build their markets, extend employment opportunities and make up for the losses caused by the lockdowns during 2020.”
