There is no doubt that the emergence of the Delta variant is making grey nomads and other travellers increasingly ‘twitchy’ about their future plans.
With Greater Sydney and south-east Queensland in lockdown, and huge question marks about if – and how quickly – the outbreaks can be brought under control, many caravanners and motorhomers are desperately trying to anticipate what might come next.
It is, of course, impossible to know … and therefore impossible to plan with any degree of certainty.
Every day, regional towns hold their collective breaths, worried that they may end up being associated with a positive case … and, apart from everything else, worried about what impact that might have on the tourism trade on which they rely.
Last week, it was feared that a flight attendant had been infectious when she flew into Longreach. In the couple of days that it took to establish there was never a risk to the country Queensland town, the damage had largely been down.
Local tour operator Alan ‘Smithy’ Smith told the ABC he had lost up to $500,000 worth of business from cancellations and the lingering drop-off in bookings.
“It’s amazing how the cookie crumbles and people panic,” Mr Smith said. “Longreach probably had the quietest main street any of us had seen for a long time … and what that does is, of course, all of the grey nomads clear out, the locals don’t go out and it’s like a bomb went off.”
The ABC reports that surrounding towns of Tambo and Blackall, correspondingly reported huge spikes in tourists who had bypassed Longreach.
Longreach Mayor Tony Rayner said a convoy of caravans and tourists made a ‘very rapid’ exit from the town as Queensland Health set up its testing stations.
“People were concerned that there may have been Covid-19 around the region, but clearly there isn’t and we need to rebuild the numbers through good advertising that we’re open for business,” he told the ABC.
Queensland Tourism Industry Council CEO Daniel Gschwind said that having a destination name associated with a Covid-19 scare was ‘not helpful, to put it lightly’.
“The Outback has experienced now, for the first time perhaps during Covid-19, what many other destinations have had, which is the loss of bookings in response to a real or perceived situation,” he told the ABC.
Longreach has not had a case of Covid since the beginning of the pandemic.
Great site
Thank you for info
Cheers Kathy,
Buying a caravan is a waste of money nowadays. We bought ours in November 2019, had a hell of a time with problems and finally got that sorted by March 2020 just in time for lockdown. In July 2020, we did the Dinosaur Trail and saw Birdsville and it was November at the end. That was good. Nowadays just house sitting because it’s a waste of money driving 1000 kilometres to be turned back. I don’t see any chance of seeing Australia unless State and Federal Government wake up and drop this Covid-19 crap and let us live with the results
Sound’s like something a bloke who used to run America said.
Here, here, Greg.
Just letting people know that the Victorian gov have declared NSW a Restricted Zone. This is higher than a red zone and therefore no travel permits are being issued even to even travel through.
Getting home to Vic ,Tassie or SA is nearly impossible.
Most people are unaware of this.
I have follows this up with Chanel 7.
They put it to Martin Foley the health minister and his answer was… We were told the borders would close on the 7 th July so it’s our problem.
You can drive non stop for 24 hours . Crazy
Just checked on the official website
https://www.coronavirus.vic.gov.au/victorian-travel-permit-system
and you can still transit through Victoria provided you have not been to a red zone.