Brisbane’s snap three-day lockdown could have crushing consequences for the area’s tourism and hospitality sectors, which face it without jobkeeper payments to fall back on.

The $90bn wage subsidy scheme came to an end on Sunday. Based on Treasury postcode data, about 27,636 businesses and not-for-profits in the greater Brisbane area were receiving payments in January 2021. Brisbane’s lockdown, which curtailed all non-essential activity outside the home from 5pm Monday, was announced just a day after the scheme ended.

“This lockdown is different,” Wes Lambert, CEO of the Restaurant and Catering Industry Association, said in a statement. “There is no jobkeeper safety net for these businesses, and little to no support will be forthcoming until after the lockdown is over.

“This means more staff stood down, up to $50m in lost revenue and nearly $15m in produce and stock thrown away, with more debt piling up.”

Lambert warned of “chaos” for restaurants and cafes, saying it could be “the final blow for many businesses who have spent more than 12 months struggling to survive”.

Jerome Dalton, who runs a Brisbane-based catering and events business, said he lost $30,000 in cancellations even before the lockdown was announced.

“The effects for us are the same as they were in March last year … big cancellations, the usual panic, lots of income lost,” he said. “Casual staff have all lost a lot of work. We’re going to end up wasting a lot of food – anything we can’t transport to give to charity.”

Dalton said he felt “a real bitter disappointment with the way this is being managed financially … With jobkeeper we could be creative, have people there to change the business model and find gaps. Now we can’t keep doing that.”

Most of Dalton’s staff were currently working on processing cancellations and refunds. “It’s a really simple equation for me: that for our businesses to continue, we need a little more help for a little longer … They seem to be pulling the rug out on the final leg.”

Bernie Hogan, of the Queensland Hotels Association, told Guardian Australia: “We’re expecting it to be a very costly few days for both businesses and individual staff members.

“We’re expecting it to be very similar to the January lockdown, and that was a cost of $100m for those three days.”

Hogan said that with the loss of jobkeeper payments, “it’s probably very difficult for all of those casual staff members who will get no shifts at all, and that will be all across Queensland”.

“I think we will find that there will be an extraordinary amount of people who will not be receiving any income.”

Easter was typically a very busy and lucrative time for hotels but between the lockdown and border closures, Hogan said, his members were bracing for a wave of cancelations. “We’re expecting this will take the confidence out of the market.”

Mark Treasure, the co-owner of small family tourism business Mirimar Cruises, which once ran a daily riverboat cruise to Brisbane’s Lone Star Koala Sanctuary, said that before the Covid-19 pandemic, about 90% of his customers were international visitors.

When jobkeeper payments concluded on Sunday, both Treasure’s skippers left the business – one for other employment and one for further training. “It’s a disaster … We’re just sitting here idle because I have no customers and no staff,” he said. “At the moment we’ve got no money and no options.”

Treasure said the lockdown would curtail interstate visitors too, putting further pressure on operators. But for his business, “lockdown hasn’t affected me because I didn’t have staff to run our boats anyway”.

“I understand that as soon as tourism comes back we’re good to go,” he said, but in the meantime “I won’t have staff qualified to run the business”.

“I don’t think the government realises how many businesses … won’t be able to continue.”