Restaurants are being forced to slash opening hours because of dire staffing shortages triggered by a lack of international workers.
The Queensland Tourism Industry Council fears the crisis is hampering the state's tourism recovery.
It is calling for skilled migrants to be allowed back into the country, however, this week's federal budget assumes Australia will remain locked off to the rest of the world until at least 2022.
Job vacancy data shows 1,008 chefs and cooks are needed in Queensland, along with 256 kitchen hands, 398 bar attendants and 494 waiters.
Cairns restaurateur Craig Squire has been serving up modern Australian cuisine since 1994.
Normally his waterside restaurant would operate seven days a week, but he has been forced to cut back to six days.
Despite advertising constantly, Mr Squire cannot find staff.
"A lot of people lost their jobs [due to COVID-19], so they've left the game," he said.
"Without backpackers and international students, we [have] a major loss of staffing numbers."
Mr Squire said he had written to his state and federal MPs, with no resolution.
Angelica Jolly has been running restaurants in Brisbane for 25 years and said she had never experienced a staff shortage this bad.
"We had some people apply [for jobs] and just never show up," she said.
Ms Jolly, too, is missing the international workforce and believes that is where the answer lies.
"I think there should be some resolution to the visa crisis," she said.
In the meantime, she is accepting fewer bookings and estimates turnover at her riverside restaurant is down about 20 per cent.
Ms Jolly is scrambling for other options, such as talking with nightclub owners to see whether they can share staff, and she has put her teenage son to work.
"I'm at a point where I'm so desperate I've recruited my son, which could be the best thing I have ever done, or the worst," she said..
"He's actually put the word out at school and I've got a couple of his friends coming."
Not enough apprentices
Governments subsidise apprenticeships in areas of skills shortages, including in cookery, but the industry considers these a long-term solution.
A Certificate III chef qualification takes three years.
About 300 people are enrolled in that course in TAFE institutions across Queensland, including at Brisbane's South Bank, where Ashley Groom, 23, is in training.
"I started as a dish hand. My mum's a chef, my sister's a chef," Ms Groom said.
She hopes to complete her training by July next year.
TAFE Queensland director Pat Dennis conceded there were not enough apprentices to fill current job vacancies.
"It's an industry that's been growing and we can't keep up with the demand," Mr Dennis said.
Daniel Gschwind from the Queensland Tourism Industry Council said a lack of workers was putting the state's tourism recovery at stake.
"We have a really serious problem," he said.
"If we are handicapped by staff shortages, that is a really big issue for us."
He is looking for an urgent solution.
"We have to be innovative in this regard," he said.
"There are perhaps opportunities to bring foreign workers in from areas that have high skills in hospitality — Bali, the Pacific".
On Sunday, Treasurer Josh Frydenberg announced a $1 billion budget plan to train and reskill the workforce.
He indicated the Job Trainer program would be extended for another 12 months and thousands of people offered free or low-fee courses to train them for work in areas of shortage.
In addition, the current apprenticeship program may also be expanded.
