Impact of Tourism in Queensland due to Coronavirus (COVID-19) Pandemic

If you asked a person on the street in America, Belgium, India, China, or any other country what they thought about Australia, they would probably list off the Great Barrier Reef, Uluru, the Opera House, and the beaches of the Gold Coast. Out of this tourist hotspots, two of which are found in Queensland. Every year, thousands of tourists from across the world descend onto Queensland. However, since COVID-19 became classified as a pandemic, the tourism industry has taken a beating, affecting many types of businesses.

Queensland has many tourist destinations, including (but not limited to) Gold Coast, Daintree National Park, Fraser Island, Port Douglas, Noosa, Sunshine Coast, and the Australia Zoo. If you’re one of the +25 million overseas tourist that arrive every year, you’ll get a ticket for the plane, land, buy a snack in-airport, and find a cab big enough to take your luggage to the hotel you’re staying at. The next morning you start the touristy stuff, like visiting all the places you want, maybe hiring out a tourist guide for the day.

These are all injections into the QLD economy, from the airline fees the airline you came with paid to the airport, the money given to the chauffeur, the room you rent, the 3-day Movieworld tickets you got for your family, all means businesses that rely on the tourist industry continue to run.

The tourism industry has meant that over 26 million (international and domestic) people arrive in Queensland alone, supporting many types of businesses, from theme parks to chauffeuring companies and hotels, employing a total of 217,000 people, or 9.1% of the Queensland workforce.

Tourism directly contributes $12.5 billion into the economy, with an additional indirect $12.5 billion, making a total of $25 billion injected into the economy, or 7.8% of the QLD economy.

Asiatic countries are the highest growing tourist groups in Queensland, with a list that includes countries like China, Korea, Hong Kong, and India.

However, due to the recent COVID-19 pandemic that has swept the world, almost all international travel has stopped. Entry into Australia is virtually impossible, with all entering people expected to enter a 14-day quarantine period. All gatherings of over 10 people are banned, meaning a shutdown of virtually all tourist destinations.

Definitely not an exciting time to be a tourist. The Australian government, as part of multiple stimulus packages, have announced a total of $1 billion to the tourism sector to assist in wage payment and other expenses, as well as releasing all businesses from paying rent for a maximum of 6 months. However, many businesses have nevertheless decided to enter a ‘hibernation’ mode, where only the bare minimum is running, with all other services shut down in order to mitigate losses. China has restricted all departure from the country, resulting in one of the highest growing tourist interest groups to be cut off.

All in all, the tourism sector has taken a massive hit. Flight Centre is expected to lose up to 35% of all bookings and flights in light of COVID-19, and other major companies in the travel sector expected to have total revenue drop by the same amount. Some have wryly compared this to the GFC, except the ‘Corona Crash’ has a sustained impact over potentially many months, and COVID-19 affecting certain sectors far more severely than the GFC ever did.

The current situation will continue, likely worsen until a cure or repressing agent is found for COVID-19. Until then, all businesses, tourists, and government will have to wait it out in quarantine to ‘flatten the curve.’