Far north Queensland’s tourism sector has been hit with an estimated $60m in holiday cancellations as extreme weather and widespread flooding swamps the region at the start of the summer holiday season.
Numerous towns, from Cooktown to Innisfail, have become isolated by flood waters and the Cairns airport has closed after the severe flooding emergency continued to unfold on Monday.
Mark Olsen, chief executive officer of Tourism Tropical North Queensland, estimated that the industry has already taken a $60m hit.
He said there were more than 4,500 visitors in the region, including 400 emergency services crew.
As Cyclone Jasper approached last week and flooding continued into this week, Olsen said the Barron River had overflowed into the Cairns airport “for the first time in history”.
“The airport will not be welcoming any flights until it has been given the all-clear,” he said.
“We have another tough week ahead … We are resilient, and we will recover. However, the industry will need assistance to rebuild.”
Patrick Kelly, who travelled from Belfast to Sydney, was booked to fly to Cairns with his wife and son on Monday morning. But on Sunday night, they were notified that their flight was cancelled.
He said was offered alternative flights through Melbourne for a later date, but after seeing photographs of flooding at Cairns airport, he felt “it didn’t seem like they were going to be operational anytime soon”.
Kelly has cancelled bookings to tour the Great Barrier Reef and the Kuranda Railway, and said he would try to claim the $1,000 cost of his Airbnb on insurance.
“It is just very disappointing,” Kelly said. “But at the same time, we can do it again. We are thinking of the people in Cairns and Queensland.”
Ecotourism company Daintree Rainforest has been closed since ferries were cancelled last Tuesday.
“For tourism businesses over here, you can imagine we are suffering quite significantly,” director Angie Hewitt said.
The business was among many that closed – including Paronella Park and the Fitzroy Island Resort – as Jasper hit northern parts of the state last week.
The region anticipated a pickup in tourist numbers leading up to Christmas, Hewitt said. But on Monday alone, she had to cancel three tour groups of up to 15 guests apiece.
“We had no people accessing this area,” Hewitt said. “It could be at least another three days until the Daintree River stops flooding … plus there has been a lot of damage to roads, so road repairs need to be done to allow access for tourism.”
The disruption to the industry follows a Covid-induced hit to north Queensland’s tourism industry, that saw the state hand out 15,000 travel vouchers in a recovery attempt.
“None of us can get out to get food or anything like that, so [it is] becoming a shortage of supplies,” Hewitt said.
“It’s an emergency situation.”
Flooding on the Cairns airport aerodrome had subsided by Monday morning, but it did not reopen during the day visitors and locals were urged to stay away.
“Given our proximity to the Barron River, there is significant debris that needs to be removed and cleaned,” it said in a statement.
“We will then be in a position to assess our runway infrastructure, to determine its serviceability. This will take some time.
“All flights scheduled for today have been cancelled or delayed.”
Hewitt said the toll of weather is “part and parcel of the landscape we live in”.
“Businesses that operate in these landscapes, we’re dependent on tourism,” she said.
“We also realise that tourism is going to be affected by weather events, and sometimes it can take quite some time for recovery.”
