A once popular tourist island remains largely deserted amid Australia’s cost of living crisis.
Images from Magnetic Island, 20 minutes off the coast of Townsville and ‘at the heart of North Queensland tourism’, showed a distinct lack of tourists, despite April to May being the island’s traditional peak season.
A video on TikTok showed one employee of Magnetic Island Sea Kayaks searching for tourists on the island was to no avail.
As one commenter on the video noted to explain the quiet on the island, there is no one there because Australians are in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis.
“We are all broke and struggling every day,” the commenter wrote.
Officials have also struggled to revive tourism on the island since strict lockdowns cut travel by 90 percent in 2020.
Magnetic Island was ranked 37 in the 2023 edition of the Tourism Sentiment Index’s Leading Placering: The 100 Most Loved Destinations Around the World.
TikTok user Crackajack9 unsuccessfully uploaded a video of himself hunting tourists on North Queensland’s Magnetic Island
The user, who works on the island, said tourism has fallen by 70 percent this year, despite the island once being named one of the world’s best-loved destinations
In the video, cafes, beaches and main streets are all empty and not a single person is seen.
“Unfortunately, tourism in Magnetic Island is down almost 70 percent by 2024,” says Crackajack9.
‘Horseshoe Bay [has had] Hardly anyone has been here since Easter.’
Even activities like kayaking, jet ski and boat tours, fishing charters, hikes and waterfalls haven’t been enough to bring tourists back, he said.
Some of those who commented argued that money is simply too tight these days to justify travel.
“People are too poor to go on holiday while 60 percent of their wages are spent on rent and mortgage,” someone wrote.
“It almost seems like the cost of living is affecting people’s ability to go on vacation,” wrote a third.
Holiday abroad was instead cited as the cheaper option.
‘Is it cheaper to fly back to Bangkok than to Townsville? It could be a problem,” one man wrote.
“It’s cheaper to go to Bali than go on holiday to Australia,” one woman added.
Others said the island itself was just too boring and limited to warrant a visit.
“It’s beautiful, but it’s boring… it’s pretty boring,” one person wrote.
“Small $30 pizzas, the whole restaurant is a crack,” another added.
“A decent supermarket and butcher shop on the island would be good, but I don’t know if that would bring in more tourists,” a third suggested.
The video ended with the question of what needs to change to bring tourists back.
A 2023 report from tourism, recreation and conservation consultancy TRC found that tourist numbers had stagnated rather than declined.
Magnetic Island is just a 20-minute ferry ride off the coast of Townsville, but tourist numbers have remained modest since the Covid pandemic
Officials have also struggled to revive tourism on the island since strict lockdowns cut travel by 90 percent in 2020
Magnetic Island attracted 299,796 tourists in 2022, which was a slight increase from the 290,500 who visited the country before the pandemic in 2019.
The TRC report created a ’10-year master plan’ to re-establish Magnetic Island as a tourism hotspot.
The plan aims to ‘increase the island’s competitiveness and facilitate development… to support tourism growth’.
“The Magnetic Island Tourism Masterplan is likely to generate an additional 98,259 visitors and 295,000 visitor nights over the next ten years from 2022,” the report said.
TRC claims this will require government funding, a new promotional campaign and the construction of 236 additional rooms for visitors.
‘Our vision [is for the island to become] a leading sustainable destination that inspires land and sea stewardship and improves the quality of life for our community and strengthens the cultural identity of our home island.”
So far, the 2,500 people living on the island say tourism is not increasing, despite businesses remaining ‘cautiously optimistic’ about a recovery.
In January, Prime Minister Steven Miles visited Townsville to try to figure out how to increase tourism revenue in North Queensland.
The result was a proposed three-step plan to revive demand through incentives, building a more resilient industry and increasing destination promotion.
SeaLink North Queensland carries the bulk of tourists to Magnetic Island and the pandemic resulted in 90 per cent fewer people traveling to the island.
General Manager Darren Spearman told the Townsville Bulletin in May 2023 that the impact on tourism had been ‘hugely negative’.
“It’s been a very bumpy ride,” Mr. Spearman said.