Tourism bookings hit ‘heartbreaking’, says Mildura operator

A SUNRAYSIA tourism operator says it is “heartbreaking” to lose much-needed business under yet another statewide lockdown despite recent outbreaks being restricted to metropolitan Melbourne.

Sean and Jodie Bromley were facing their best August bookings in memory aboard their All Seasons Houseboats and strong demand at the All Seasons Holiday Park before the Victorian Government announced a further seven-day lockdown from Thursday.

Ms Bromley said the two businesses had been “decimated” by the lockdown as the travelling public began to lose confidence in making advance bookings.

“It took a little bit to get going after the two weeks that we’ve just completed, but even the next two weeks onwards the houseboats and the park were really picking up,” Ms Bromley said.

“But we’ve just been decimated again, totally … lost everything,” she said.

“We work so hard in all the avenues to build the business and make the bookings and the interaction with each customer (in lockdown) is just heartbreaking.

“You’re looking at having a really good August in the off-season and then it just gets stripped away from you.”

Ms Bromley said the immediate impact of a sixth lockdown was “absolutely” large-scale cancellations.

“We’ve now had mass cancellations through August and September – on August 8, 20 and 21 we were 100 per cent booked – every single cabin, every single site and I now have only four cabins booked out of 36 and no sites,” she said.

“Basically, for the next seven days, we lose every single booking unless you’re an essential worker, and there’s not many of them.”

Ms Bromley said that while tourists had been hesitant to travel due to the uncertainty of snap lockdowns, she was hoping for a busy Christmas-New Year period.

“I’m finding that on the houseboats, where people pay two months in advance, everyone is very hesitant,” she said.

“Everyone is just wanting to sit and wait because they have lost confidence.

“But our bookings from November-December onwards have been really solid and everyone is obviously still optimistic that we’ll be out of this situation by then.

“It’s hard to bounce back, but we always say that when it gets tough, you’ve just got to go harder – you’ve just got to find that silver lining.

“People are desperate to travel and Mildura will bounce back from this.

“We’ve just got to get through this next week or two.”