Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Tourism Central Australia CEO Danial Rochford says major operators are reporting declines of more than 50 per cent in visitation with Partijima not attracting numbers like it has in the past

Transcript

Tourism Central Australia CEO Danial Rochford says major operators are reporting declines of more than 50 per cent in visitation with Partijima not attracting numbers like it has in the past · 360 with Katie Woolf

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  Speaker 1: Now joining me on the line right now is the
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  Speaker 1: CEO of Tourism Central Australia, Daniel Rochburg.
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  Speaker 2: Good morning, Daniel, Good morning Katie. Good morning tea listeners.
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  Speaker 1: Daniel. We just heard from the Minister for Major Events
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  Speaker 1: about the government's stance on the AFL game in Alice.
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  Speaker 1: How important is the AFL game to the Alice Springs economy.
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  Speaker 2: It's absolutely important for two main reasons, Katie. Obviously, the
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  Speaker 2: impact positive impact of the game it has in terms
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  Speaker 2: of visitation to the town is really critical. But it's
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  Speaker 2: also the morale boost that it brings to our community.
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  Speaker 2: But I think certainly the other big worry is that
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  Speaker 2: if this game is lost, we will not only see
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  Speaker 2: that loss of visitation, but also if it's lost because
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  Speaker 2: it's cited from a safety issue, then that will get
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  Speaker 2: national media exposure and that will be catastrophic. You will
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  Speaker 2: just reinforce the that already that existing tsunami of national
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  Speaker 2: negative media about our town and our brand.
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  Speaker 1: Well, and the hard thing is is that you can
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  Speaker 1: actually understand why the Alice Springstown Councils made the decision
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  Speaker 1: about the Central Australian Football League in terms of you know,
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  Speaker 1: people coming from various different locations, them saying that they
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  Speaker 1: just need a bit of a stop gap for this year,
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  Speaker 1: and that they are really concerned about, you know, just
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  Speaker 1: the issues that Alice Springs has been facing all throughout
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  Speaker 1: the year longer than that. You know, you and I
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  Speaker 1: have been speaking about this for such a long period
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  Speaker 1: of time, so I can understand why the Allice Springstown
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  Speaker 1: Council is concerned. But then, you know, to be in
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  Speaker 1: a situation where the AFL game the GWS Giants may
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  Speaker 1: not take on the Demons because the Central Australian Football
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  Speaker 1: League games aren't going ahead, I'm quite perplexed by this
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  Speaker 1: whole situation.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, putting two very separate situations together here, Katie. You know,
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  Speaker 2: the council has made what in my opinion, a prudent
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  Speaker 2: decision to make that reset for this year to just
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  Speaker 2: you know, it's just one mechanism council can do to
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  Speaker 2: help support the community. But this separate issue, this game,
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  Speaker 2: the Round sixteen match, is an agreement between the Northern
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  Speaker 2: Territory Government and the AFL, and you know, as the
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  Speaker 2: Minister for Major Events, you know that comes under Minister
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  Speaker 2: Kirby's jurisdiction, and you know, he's obviously just said on
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  Speaker 2: your program he's going to hopefully get active, and that's
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  Speaker 2: what we need our minister to do, get active and
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  Speaker 2: make sure this game is kept.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, what did you make of his comments? You know,
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  Speaker 1: he'd sort of said that he hadn't been contacted directly,
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  Speaker 1: but you know that the Sports Minister had. It sounds
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  Speaker 1: like it's another debarkle.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, Well, this issue is it's an issue with between
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  Speaker 2: the AFL and the Northern Territory government. You know, that's
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  Speaker 2: the that's the contractual situation. So you know, I certainly
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  Speaker 2: you know that there's clear worry that this game will
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  Speaker 2: be moved, So one would hope the Northern Territory government
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  Speaker 2: is moving heaven and earth to make sure that isn't
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  Speaker 2: the case.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, I one hundred percent agree with you. I mean
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  Speaker 1: I think that you know, this is territory taxpayers dollars
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  Speaker 1: that go in to these types of agreements, and the
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  Speaker 1: agreement was that that game was going to happen in
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  Speaker 1: Alice Springs. Now it's a disappointing scenario for everybody to
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  Speaker 1: be in where some things are not able to happen
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  Speaker 1: at this point in time due to the crime issue.
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  Speaker 1: That we're facing well right around the Northern territory, but
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  Speaker 1: for you guys in Central Australia, it is something that's
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  Speaker 1: been really, really tough.
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  Speaker 2: And I'll give you some real statistics Katie and being
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  Speaker 2: completely transparent for the month of April. And you know,
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  Speaker 2: we've just come from Pajma and I've just heard the
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  Speaker 2: Minister's comments about it. But to give your listeners a
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  Speaker 2: real viewpoint of how we're traveling, we are almost forty
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  Speaker 2: percent down in visitation into the Alice Springs Information Center
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  Speaker 2: and I spoke to the top twenty five tourism operators
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  Speaker 2: in the last few days in our region. The best
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  Speaker 2: I had was a fifteen percent decline, but I had
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  Speaker 2: a number of operators reporting declines of over fifty percent.
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  Speaker 1: But then we just had the Minister saying that they've
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  Speaker 1: had some record days with Pajama. But are people not
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  Speaker 1: traveling from other locations? Are they not staying? What do
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  Speaker 1: you reckon? Where's the discrepancy? Do you think?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah? I do not know, but what I can say
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  Speaker 2: is during the course of Pajuma, and you know, I,
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  Speaker 2: let's be frank, I was you know, if we didn't
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  Speaker 2: have Parjuma, our situation would have been a lot worse.
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  Speaker 2: You know, we're very thankful for that event, but the
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  Speaker 2: reality is the last year couldn't buy a room in
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  Speaker 2: Alice Springs during Pajuma two months in advance. There was
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  Speaker 2: not one night over this year's event where there was
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  Speaker 2: a no vacancy sign in this town.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah right, you know it's there might have been record nights,
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  Speaker 3: but I think you'll find that that being you know,
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  Speaker 3: obviously the event was scale.
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  Speaker 2: Back this year, and you know the reports I get
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  Speaker 2: getting was that was not filling beds like Paja you're
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  Speaker 2: normally done. So you know, at the end of the day,
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  Speaker 2: you know, if we didn't have if we didn't have
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  Speaker 2: that event, it would have been a lot lot worse. So,
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  Speaker 2: you know, don't get me wrong. You know, this is
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  Speaker 2: not a criticism of parge Bucks. I think they do
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  Speaker 2: Northern Territory of Major Events do an amazing job on that.
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  Speaker 2: But you know, we are in a dire situation and
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  Speaker 2: you know it's getting worse, Katie, for us, I had
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  Speaker 2: you know, as I said, as I was reaching out
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  Speaker 2: to many of those operators, I'm hearing a significant amount
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  Speaker 2: of anguish and mental health challenges. This is worse than
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  Speaker 2: what we're facing during COVID. And you know, unfortunately the
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  Speaker 2: streets are still not stable. Every ninety in our springs,
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  Speaker 2: there are still issues and until such time we get
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  Speaker 2: that stability back onto our streets, we're not able to
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  Speaker 2: get on the front foot. We can turn this around.
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  Speaker 2: You know, there are many great things and make great
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  Speaker 2: opportunities for a region, but we need to deal with
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  Speaker 2: the issue. I like to say that it's like, you know,
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  Speaker 2: to put in an analogy that top enders will know
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  Speaker 2: it's a light cleaning up after the cyclone when you're
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  Speaker 2: still in the middle of the cyclone, and we need
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  Speaker 2: to get past get on top of our issues, and
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  Speaker 2: then we can really get on the offense.
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  Speaker 1: Well, Daniel, I always appreciate your time. I always appreciate
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  Speaker 1: your honesty. Thank you very much for having a chat
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  Speaker 1: with us this morning, and we will talk to you
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  Speaker 1: again very soon. Thanks Katie, thank you,