The Sunshine Coast tourism industry is ready to welcome holidaymakers with accommodation, attractions and tours open and back to business as usual.
Visit Sunshine Coast (VSC) CEO Matt Stoeckel said his thoughts go to those who have been impacted by ex-TC Alfred and offered a huge thanks to the emergency services personnel who worked around the clock to keep the region and its visitors safe.
He said Sunshine Coast Airport was fully operational along with the public transport network, hotels, attractions, tours and restaurants. However, some facilities may remain disrupted due to a handful of roads remaining closed.
“We have a lot of ground to make up though – I haven’t seen hotels this empty since the pandemic. Tens of thousands of people cancelled their holidays to the Sunshine Coast last week. This includes almost 20,000 visitors who were coming to the Coast for events such as the Mooloolaba Tri, Oz Tag Senior State Championships and for several business events. Some events have been rescheduled, but others haven’t.
“In addition to the cancellations, forward bookings have also dried up. Our hotel occupancy for March is already down considerably compared to last year. It even dips as low as 25 per cent occupancy for the end of the month – this is less than half of what we would have otherwise anticipated.”
Mr Stoeckel said the impact was a big hit for the Sunshine Coast tourism industry which supports 29,000 jobs within the region.
“To help the tourism industry get back on its feet, VSC yesterday launched a new Real Time Social Media Campaign to show holidaymakers what the Sunshine Coast really looks like, right now, through photos and videos.
The Real Time content will be shared using the hashtag #SunshineCoastForReal across VSC’s official Instagram and Facebook pages and showcase that our tourism industry is back open for business.
“The best way to get people travelling again is by showing people exactly what the Sunshine Coast looks like right now,” Mr Stoeckel said.
“We’ve had an instant response to the campaign with 64,000 video views overnight which we hope will quickly translate into bookings.
“Some tourism businesses have not had any customers for a week, and it’s so important that we get the tourism industry flowing again.”
The campaign has the support of VSC members who are sharing Real Time content across their own channels.
One of the first operators to share her real time content with VSC is Verena Olesch of Maleny Botanic Gardens and Bird World, who welcomed 40 visitors on Tuesday but said that was well below normal weekday numbers.
“The sun is out and it looks immaculate. All the animals are safe and they’ve just missed having people to play with,” she said.
Keep up-to-date with rolling coverage from the Sunshine Coast across VSC’s official Instagram and Facebook pages.
