While the vast majority of grey nomads have declared themselves ready, willing and able to travel when borders start opening again and the government declares it safe to do so, some experts say there will still be a lot of caution around.
Townsville-based economist Colin Dwyer said tourism-dependent centres like Cairns are unlikely to recover as quickly as other regional Queensland centres, and he did not envision an influx of domestic travellers once Covid-19 restrictions were relaxed.
“Older people are going to be less likely to want to travel away from their homes — those tourism areas are going to struggle to recover,” he told the ABC.
He said it was important for civic leaders in places like Cairns to consider diversifying the economy.
“They need to start looking at how they can attract another industry and how they can get another specialisation,” he said.
The ABC reports that reef tourism operators are also feeling the strain with dozens of cruise liners now floating idle at the Cairns marina.
The Chief executive of Passions of Paradise, said he was hopeful about the future of tourism in the region, but was not sure exactly what it would look like.
“Will people be sceptical about travelling for a holiday?” he told the ABC. “Will people just want to jump in their cars and drive to see their families over the borders?”
Far North Queensland normally sees three million international and domestic visitors a year in an industry worth $2.5 billion annually. But now restaurants and hotels are empty and the once-buzzing Cairns Esplanade, normally packed with backpackers, is eerily quiet.
Tourism Tropical North Queensland chief executive Mark Olsen said the region lost more than $200 million worth of bookings in March with the impact to the end of April estimated at $500 million in lost visitor spending.
“We have seen over 2,650 jobs lost to date and more than 5,000 people stood down in the region,” he said. “By the year end we are expecting to see another 11,000 local people out of work, with the recovery for our region slower than most.”
Can’t wait to leave Victoria for the warmer north states. We normally do our own thing anyway so apart from happy hour around the fires, most people are in their van by dark, then move on next morning.
Leave Victoria and move North
Try visiting your own State.
Cairns was never very friendly towards Grey Nomads, too busy making money off the overseas tourists. Perhaps they will make it more attractive to nomads for a while?
Couldn’t agree more
We’ve dodged Cairns for the past 10 years due to their unfriendly attitude toward Grey Nomads. Maybe, just maybe we will return to see if the attitude has changed. There’ll probably be less grubby backpackers too, which will be nice
Before the virus we traveled approximately 30 percent of the time
And after it ends we will do the same
As we basicly free camp
And we try to find quiet spots
And I suspect more will try to do this
Nomad travel may have changed for ever
No cruises train travel
No group travel
Yep
And no money!
Think at first in Australia no borders should be opened. Just allow travel on your own state until it can be proved it is safe to venture further. Every state has something to offer and you could support the farmers and small outback towns in your state that were affected by bushfires.
Exactly and even then be wary of the surroundings
But my van is in storage just over the border. Can’t go anywhere till borders open. The problem with living on the Qld/NSW border.
Absolutely – I believe this is a good starting point. We pick up our first ever RV this week after waiting 9 months for it to arrive. So looking forward to just venturing out in NSW as it has a lot of hidden gems to visit.
Our plans were to do short trips within NSW anyway. We have had the van for 3 months and still to do a maiden voyage.
I imagine the majority of, in this case, ‘grey nomads’ of which i am one, will be champing at the bit to get on the road again. It appears with so much negativity, totally understandable at this point in time, people tend to focus on that negativity thus their comments reflect that. I would like to think that when things return to ‘the new norm’ and people’s attitudes change with it, that we will hopefully leave all this behind very quickly and focus on any of the positives we can grasp onto. Life is too short people. Look forward to seeing you on a road somewhere across our great Wide Brown Land.
Try visiting your own State and helping your own economy
Can’t wait for the borders to re-open & I’m off. I’ve seen pretty much all I want to see in my state.
An economist, how come the industry is gearing up for an increase in the in sales, just another Wombat passing an opinion.
Yes I agree – we will travel in our own state (SA) for a while but the lure north for warmer weather may be too much to resist. Anyway I can’t see the SA border being opened yet for a while.