The long weekend was the perfect time for Whitsunday Jetski Tours to re-open its doors following eased COVID-19 restrictions across Queensland from Saturday. After being closed for six weeks, Whitsunday Jetski Tours was one of the first tourism operators able to recommence operations, based on the style of touring offered.
Owner and operator of Whitsunday Jetski Tours, Steve Ward, said, “We saw the Queensland Government’s notification the week prior outlining that some restrictions were being eased in Queensland, one of which included jetskiing. We were then in regular communication with the Australian Maritime Safety Authority, the Water Police and the local police, which resulted in us being able to commence operating two of our tours, the Airlie Adventure and the Two Island Safari, with specific guidelines in place.”
Those guidelines required that guests needed to be within 50 kilometres to the Whitsunday Jetski Tours check in office, that they observe social distancing rules, are members of the same household if sharing a jetski, or are travelling with another friend on separate jetskis. Additionally, the Whitsunday Jetski Tours team kept guests safe with a high level of hygiene and practices to support social distancing.
Steve said, “It all happened quite quickly, but we rolled everything out with great excitement. Our tours operated every day over the long weekend and not only did our locals enjoy being back on the water, but so did our guides! Our tours always offer the perfect social distancing activity anyway, being outdoors and with significant distance between the jetskis. It is one of our main points of difference, even in non COVID-19 times, as we offer small, personalised touring, while enjoying a unique adventure tour like nothing else.”
The first tour to operate was on Saturday morning, with local guests enjoying some open water adventure on the Two Island Safari tour around Daydream and South Molle Islands. Additional tours subsequently followed on Sunday and Monday, showing that locals were keen to enjoy their own backyard after a difficult few weeks. Locals also receive a special discount of 10% off tours.
Steve continued, “While we are happy to be back on the water, it’s a little bittersweet as we can’t wait to see all of our other Whitsunday friends and businesses back up and running in full when it is safe to do so. At that point, it also means that we can recommence our other tours which include resort visits to Paradise Cove Resort and Palm Bay, so there’s still plenty to look forward to, as long as we all do the right thing in the meantime.”