Even booming tourism operators live in fear

It takes several laps of Noosa’s main drag, Hastings Street, to find a carpark and nearly every table is occupied at the string of sidewalk cafes by 9am.

It is a weekday and a vastly different scene than in the far north Queensland city of Cairns where near-empty tour boats are floating around the Great Barrier Reef.

Queensland’s multibillion-dollar tourism industry has been knee-capped by the COVID-19 pandemic, with Tourism Industry Council chief Daniel Gschwind estimating at least $12 billion has been ripped from the sector in the past year alone.

But some pockets of the state – particularly the string of coastal communities…