The explosion of COVID-19 cases across the Christmas holiday period has cast varying fortunes on tourism businesses, with some managing to cope due to the nature of their offerings, while others are suffering.
Like many industries, staffing shortages due to isolation requirements have also been reported across the sector.
SA Tourism Commission chief executive Rodney Harrex said there had been mixed feedback from tourism operators.
"There's no doubt that the Omicron outbreak is presenting big challenges, but there's also been a lot of people continuing to see our state and make the most of the summer," he said.
"Right now, we know confidence to book has taken a hit so we're encouraging South Australians to keep their bookings wherever they can, to plan and book ahead, and continue to travel COVID-safely in SA."
Canoe The Coorong owner Brenton Carle offers kayaking tours and equipment hire, and said the outdoors nature of his business was beneficial.
"A lot of families and tourists are looking for something a little different where they aren't indoors, and we're decreasing our tour group sizes and increasing our cleaning measures to make everything as safe as possible," he said.
If someone thinks you're doing the wrong thing, that word will spread and you'll probably suffer more by not taking extreme measures to be on the safe side.
- STEVE MOIGNARD
The business had a 25 per cent lift on the Christmas period 12 months earlier, while kayak hire is up by 30pc.
"There are two types of people - a class who is very paranoid about COVID-19, and a class very much wanting to get it all over and done with," he said.
Mr Carle said challenges such as a lack of imminent school group bookings, due to the staggered return to school, as well as staffing shortage problems at times presented problems but were manageable.
"One of my staff was on his way down to do the kayak delivery for hire, and rang me to say he'd just found out he was a close contact, so it was a mad rush to sort something out," he said.
Coonawarra Bush Holiday Park owner Steve Moignard said his business was still recovering from losing an entire Easter holiday period of revenue in 2020 when COVID-19 first hit, with new challenges presenting themselves during the constantly evolving COVID-19 situation.
Mr Moignard made the choice to close the holiday park for four days last week after a guest received a positive result on a Rapid Antigen Test.
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"To be on the safe side, all staff got PCR tests and we spent three days deep cleaning everywhere the guest had been," he said.
"We closed everything because of an assumed close contact, we never got it confirmed by SA Health either way - you have to make a judgement call as to whether you think there is any risk.
"That's really strange, because we're so used to being told exactly what we have to do and why.
"That's a worry, because some people would put their business before safety because you don't want to lose money to close down.
"You have to look at the self-interest side though - if someone thinks you're doing the wrong thing, that word will spread and you'll probably suffer more by not taking extreme measures to be on the safe side."
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