By Jess Baker
Accommodation providers in the Granite Belt have breathed a collective sigh of relief after Greater Brisbane’s snap three-day lockdown was lifted just in time for Easter.
Good Friday to Easter Monday is traditionally one of the busiest times of the year for the local tourism industry – particularly for accommodation providers and food retailers.
But a sudden spike in Queensland Covid-19 cases had many fearing this year’s Easter would be a repeat of last year’s, with Covid-19 rampant and restrictions in full force.
Martin Cooper of the Granite Belt’s Ridgemill Estate, president of Granite Belt Wine Tourism, said April and May in 2020 was “horrendous” for Granite Belt accommodation providers.
“We (Ridgemill Estate) were down 82 percent in April and 77 percent in May,” he said.
“We were a bit fearful when (last week’s Greater Brisbane) lockdown was announced. We would have lost about 75 percent of our bookings.
“But when (Annastacia) Pałaszczuk did her announcement on Wednesday I got a glimmer of hope.”
Mr Cooper said the short lockdown cost Ridgemill Estate two cabin bookings and two wine tasting bookings and was a “pretty minimal” setback in an otherwise excellent 10 months of operation.
“It’s been the biggest year on record for us in both cabin accommodation and wine sales,” he said.
“February this year was three times as big as it has been in previous years. We were at 77 percent occupancy … we’d usually be between 20 and 30 percent.
“I spoke to eight or nine venues over the (Easter) weekend and they all said that business is better than usual.”
Other Granite Belt accommodation providers said they too suffered “negligible” losses due to the lockdown.
Geoff Davenport of Granite Belt Brewery said no cancellations were made over the Easter long weekend, but 10 were made between Tuesday and Thursday last week.
“People were staying either one or two nights over that period, so over the available 60 night stays we probably lost about 25 percent,” he said.
“We did have two groups who were supposed to go back to Brisbane last week extend their stay.”
Mr Davenport said between 80 and 85 percent of Granite Belt Brewery’s guests are from Brisbane, so the possibility of the snap lockdown being extended beyond 5.00pm Thursday 1 April was cause for worry.
“Our main concern was what we were going to do with our restaurant,” he said.
“We didn’t want to buy $10,000 to $15,000 worth of food for the weekend only to have it go to waste, which is what happened last year.
“Not much was happening all of last week. Our restaurant is already closed Tuesday to Thursday, but our bar was open and was down on previous years.”
New Queensland-wide Covid-19 regulations meant Granite Belt Brewery was also required to ensure all guests were providing their contact details upon arrival and were wearing masks.
Mr Davenport said an extra staff member was needed over the Easter weekend to police QR sign-ins and adherence to mask-wearing rules which – at double time and a half – has come at a substantial cost to Granite Belt Brewery.
Nevertheless, Mr Davenport said it has been a great Easter for Granite Belt accommodation providers.
“We were shut last year, so we had 100 percent more occupancy this year than we had last year,” he said.
“We are just grateful to be open.”
