In an interview with The North West Star on November 23, Outback at Isa General Manager Roland Schibig confirmed Mount Isa had only seen 40 per cent of tourists in 2020 compared to 2019.

"That includes the time we were closed for three months due to the lockdown before the season started," Mr Schibig said.

"During the season there was a lot of Queenslander traffic and caravaners. However we didn't have many groups of travellers like we would usually have coming up from Victoria.

"Overall the figures weren't too bad considering the circumstances, we just didn't know what to expect. "

Mr Schibig said Queensland's long and strict border restrictions had a huge impact on tourism numbers across the state.

"I think the border closures have really impacted the east coast more than us, but in saying that a lot of people from the east coast have gone caravaning around and discovering the outback because of the border closures," he said.

"The issue wasn't getting into other states, it was being able to get back and having to isolate for two weeks, which was the problem.

"Broken Hill in NSW has had a booming tourism season in Outback NSW because their border restrictions weren't as strict. They are six hours from Adelaide, 11 hours from Melbourne and the same from Sydney so they were a lot more accessible unlike outback Queensland to neighbouring states."

Mr Schibig said although Outback at Isa had not received as many tourists, they were still busy helping grey nomads to fill out border declaration passes.

"We have no computer station here but the library does. However they would usually have about 20 stations, but now due to COVID-19 they only have three, so we had a lot of travellers coming to us to help them fill out their NT border passes," he said.

"So they would be in our front office space, taking up the space for people who actually wanted to book tours so that in itself was a nightmare and something we weren't prepared for."

Mr Schibig said the tourism had been drying up since mid-October.

"Right now, it is dead. It has very clearly dropped off from about mid-October on wards, which is continuing with our normal tourism trend.

"We were running daily tours to Riversleigh Fossil Centre and the Hard Mine tours sometimes two a day until two weeks ago.

"There are a few travellers here and there but in general it is very scarce, also the problem is it is getting very hot and tourists don't want to be up here in the heat."

Outback Queensland is promoting a summer season, however Mr Schibig is skeptical about the decision.

"I am a bit hesitant about that because all the locals disappear over Christmas, because it is to hot. So if it is too hot for the locals why are we trying to drag tourists up here. And that's not being negative, that's just being realistic," he said.

As for the 2021 season, Outback at Isa is hoping for a much busier season.

"I would hope the tourism season is going to be quite busy but again it all depends on restrictions and travel bubbles," Mr Schibig said.

"I think we will be busy for the next two to three years, how busy? We don't know.

"We are working on a master plan for Outback at Isa in conjunction with the tourism association and Mount Isa City Council which will commence from December 7.

"We will be looking into other products or what else we can do to make this a real hub. This is not a standard visitor information centre because we have cafes, art galleries, we have so much more. So we are looking even bigger and better and by February or March we should have the finalisation of a master plan."

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