Hamilton Island still open, though self-isolation requirements limit more services

05 Jan 2022

Contrary to several recent media announcements Hamilton Island (HIE) is still very much open for business, even as our community along with much of Australia, continues to deal with the challenges of COVID-19 and especially the Omicron variant.

Due to Australian Government COVID-19 self-isolation requirements for a growing group of Island-based staff, we have had to make the difficult decision to reduce services across the island.

The HIE house-keeping department has been particularly hard hit with large numbers of staff now in isolation.

As our holiday homes team is numerically small and have seen their housekeeping staff significantly shrink in the last 7 days, we have made the difficult decision to cancel guest arrivals for all our HIE managed holiday homes over the coming two weeks.

This is undoubtedly very disappointing news to visitors who had planned stay on Hamilton Island in holiday homes and we offer our deepest apologies to those affected.

We had hoped to be able to maintain full operations throughout this evolving situation to enable our guests to enjoy their holiday with loved ones and friends.

However, we are committed to providing a safe and enjoyable holiday experience for our guests and staff and this must remain our foremost priority.

As widely reported, hospitality venues across the country have been dealing with staffing limitations, not only due to self-isolation requirements but also due to the sustained suspension of new international workers.

In preparation for this situation, Hamilton Island has been running a ‘stop sell’ of its hotel accommodation across the island for several months, limiting its occupancy significantly. Some other services across the Island may also be affected, including restrictions to day trip visitors and changes to guest services in some restaurants and activities.

For guests staying at other holiday homes not managed by HIE we suggest you speak to your booking agent as it is our understanding that many of the private housekeeping companies also have developing staff shortage issues.

Affected guests staying at other Hamilton Island properties will be contacted in due course with more information regarding changes to services, activities and closures.

Like all Australians, we hope to be through these challenges soon, at which point we can return services to normal. We wish for nothing more than to welcome all guests back to Hamilton Island.

Together, as a community, we will get through this most challenging period.