Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Katie spoke with Tourism Central Australia CEO Danial Rochford about travel into and around the NT with the arrival of the new coronavirus variant

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Katie spoke with Tourism Central Australia CEO Danial Rochford about travel into and around the NT with the arrival of the new coronavirus variant · 360 with Katie Woolf

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  Speaker 1: Well, it is just thirteen minutes away from ten o'clock
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  Speaker 1: that number. If you've got something on your mind that
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  Speaker 1: you reckon, we need to know about eight nine four
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  Speaker 1: one one O four nine. I know plenty of people
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  Speaker 1: have been in contact with us, certainly in recent days
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  Speaker 1: this morning as well and in recent weeks about the
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  Speaker 1: Christmas holidays and wondering just how things are going to
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  Speaker 1: work when it comes to those Christmas.
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  Speaker 2: Holidays and whether they'll be able to travel.
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  Speaker 1: Now we did get that insight, well, I guess about
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  Speaker 1: a week ago, a bit over a week ago when
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  Speaker 1: we learned that yes, we would be able to travel
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  Speaker 1: at Christmas time, we would see the territory introduce that
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  Speaker 1: rapid antigen testing for all vaccinated arrivals into the Northern
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  Speaker 1: Territory from December twenty and it meant that changes to
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  Speaker 1: quarantine would obviously come into play. So excuse me, so
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  Speaker 1: has this made any difference and are we seeing sort
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  Speaker 1: of any more bookings? Well, joining us on the line
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  Speaker 1: from Central Australia, the CEO of Tourism Central Australia, Daniel Rochford.
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  Speaker 2: Good morning to you, Daniel.
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  Speaker 3: Good morning Katie, and good morning to your listeners.
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  Speaker 1: Daniel, as I mentioned there about a week and a
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  Speaker 1: half ago, I guess it was the Northern Territory government
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  Speaker 1: announced that there would be those changes to quarantining from
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  Speaker 1: well around about now.
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  Speaker 2: I guess, or a little while ago.
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  Speaker 1: But when it comes to fully vaccinated travelers coming into
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  Speaker 1: the territory, from December twenty they'd introduced the rapid antigen
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  Speaker 1: testing for all fully vaccinated arrivals and if they were
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  Speaker 1: traveling from red zones, well there would be some other
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  Speaker 1: changes i e. Some home quarantine requirements they would be ending.
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  Speaker 1: Though before Christmas, Daniel, has this had much of an
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  Speaker 1: impact from your perspective a week and a half on
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  Speaker 1: when it comes to bookings in Central Australia.
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  Speaker 3: Look, we haven't seen a huge uptake in bookings, Katie,
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  Speaker 3: but certainly there's some cautious optimism from the decision that
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  Speaker 3: the Chief Minister and the Government's made on this front.
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  Speaker 3: And just to get give you some clarity in terms
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  Speaker 3: of some positivity is that we've seen already jets move
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  Speaker 3: from two flights a week into Yulara, which is the
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  Speaker 3: only flights that that airport is getting at the moment,
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  Speaker 3: to seven from December twentieth, so that's certainly a green
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  Speaker 3: bud of optimism, but it's of course well short of
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  Speaker 3: the forty plus flights that we used to have pro
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  Speaker 3: the pandemic into Ulara Airport.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: Right, so a bit of an increase, but two to
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  Speaker 1: seven comparatively to forty. Did you say that you'd usually
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  Speaker 1: see on any normal.
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  Speaker 3: Weg Yeah, And so look, I guess the message there
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  Speaker 3: is is a long road ahead until we get back
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  Speaker 3: to some degree of normality, but at least it's pointing
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  Speaker 3: in the right direction. But certainly, the feedback I'm getting
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  Speaker 3: from most of our our Springs operators is there's not
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  Speaker 3: suddenly a huge upturn in visitation from December twentieth, but
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  Speaker 3: it does put a little bit of a spring in
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  Speaker 3: their step. I hope that we're now starting to see,
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  Speaker 3: albeit a dim light at the end of the tunnel,
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  Speaker 3: and I think operators are now starting to get their
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  Speaker 3: heads in the frame of how they start to reopen
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  Speaker 3: into twenty twenty two and start to look forward to
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  Speaker 3: what will hopefully be touch Wood a good season ahead
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  Speaker 3: for us.
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  Speaker 1: It is such a difficult situation, and you and I
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  Speaker 1: have spoken on numerous occasions about the real hardship that
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  Speaker 1: a lot of our tourism operators are experiencing in Central Australia,
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  Speaker 1: and I know that you've said there.
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  Speaker 2: While there are those sort of buds.
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  Speaker 1: Of optimism and that is a good thing, or it's
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  Speaker 1: pointing in the right direction, there's still quite a way
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  Speaker 1: to go. The Minister for Business, Paul Kirby, joined us
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  Speaker 1: on the show on the Week that was on Friday
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  Speaker 1: morning and said that they were the government was looking
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  Speaker 1: at doing some further work with our tourism operators in
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  Speaker 1: Central Australia because they knew that you were experiencing tough times.
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  Speaker 2: Has there been much development in that.
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  Speaker 3: No, but we are hearing that there may be something
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  Speaker 3: on the horizon which is good news. But look at
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  Speaker 3: the end of the day, as much as I do
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  Speaker 3: paint that there is a green butd of optimism, it's
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  Speaker 3: pretty bad and you know we on it. So almost
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  Speaker 3: on a daily basis, we're hearing businesses deciding to either
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  Speaker 3: hire an eighth chap down or really roll back in operation.
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  Speaker 3: So almost two thirds of our businesses have made some
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  Speaker 3: form of decision to scale back in some safe or
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  Speaker 3: form over the summer period. This of course is the
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  Speaker 3: time we would normally see international visitors come to Central Australia,
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  Speaker 3: and of course with the national border still essentially chat,
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  Speaker 3: you know that's not going to happen again, so it's
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  Speaker 3: pretty die still. But I guess with the announcement of
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  Speaker 3: the Chief Minister made and you know, with quarantine free
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  Speaker 3: travel opening up from the twentieth, hopefully we'll start to
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  Speaker 3: see that's come back. And I guess the optimism that
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  Speaker 3: we're hearing from our operators is from March next year,
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  Speaker 3: bookings look good. But the challenge, Katie is we need
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  Speaker 3: to get our operators from today to March next year,
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  Speaker 3: and the challenge is that we've just for not seen
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  Speaker 3: the bookings between now and March.
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  Speaker 1: Now, Daniel, what about when it comes to staffing those
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  Speaker 1: different operations. I know that we do rely quite heavily
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  Speaker 1: on interstate and also international staff members in the tourism sector.
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  Speaker 2: How are things going?
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  Speaker 1: And do you expect that there's going to be a
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  Speaker 1: bit of a change over the Christmas break as those
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  Speaker 1: as those borders open, of people maybe leaving the territory.
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  Speaker 3: Yes, and look that I spoke to our annual General
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  Speaker 3: Meeting of TCA last week on this topic. In my opinion,
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  Speaker 3: and it's pretty obvious and pretty clear to everyone is
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  Speaker 3: there is a tsunami just about to hit us. On
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  Speaker 3: the other side of this is labor shortages. We have
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  Speaker 3: just cast survey out to our members. We need just
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  Speaker 3: in Central Australia and just in tourism in Central Australia.
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  Speaker 3: We need a thousand staff between right here when we're
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  Speaker 3: talking to March next year, and I just don't know
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  Speaker 3: how we're going to do that, Katie. I know many
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  Speaker 3: of our operators are now starting to talk about the
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  Speaker 3: specific labor program, which is great, but we're going to
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  Speaker 3: need intensive government support here. We're going to have to
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  Speaker 3: open and pick up rocks and see what's underneath them,
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  Speaker 3: to look at innovative strategies to try and encourage people
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  Speaker 3: to come to the North Territory.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah. Look, that sounds like it's going to be really tough,
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  Speaker 1: going a thousand stuff from now until March. I don't
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  Speaker 1: know exactly how are you going to do that unless
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  Speaker 1: you do bring unless you do look at maybe bringing
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  Speaker 1: people from overseas as well.
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  Speaker 3: Look, well, I think we need to be innovative, and
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  Speaker 3: I guess I cast the net out to our operators
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  Speaker 3: to say come to us with ideas and strategies with
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  Speaker 3: how we might be able to do this. Do we
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  Speaker 3: need to look at specifically chartering some flights from places
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  Speaker 3: like the UK or India to encourage people to come
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  Speaker 3: out us to the northern territory. Do we need to
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  Speaker 3: do more in the Pacific labor front. Do we need
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  Speaker 3: to supercharge the Workstay Play program that was put forward
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  Speaker 3: by the government at the start of this year which
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  Speaker 3: provided fifteen hundred dollars to businesses for support about encouraging staff.
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  Speaker 3: Do we need to supercharge that. All of these are
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  Speaker 3: great ideas, but the thing I've understood with our labor
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  Speaker 3: shortages issue is as easy you put your head down
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  Speaker 3: this rabbit hole. There is no one solution. We have
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  Speaker 3: to do multiple things to try and fix the problem.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, Daniel, I do want to ask you as well.
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  Speaker 1: We know obviously that there is this new strain of COVID,
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  Speaker 1: the OMRA con strain. We've got a case out there
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  Speaker 1: at Howard Springs. The Health Minister set on the show
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  Speaker 1: short time ago that there is no risk to the
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  Speaker 1: general public when it comes to this case. She also
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  Speaker 1: said at this point that there is no plans to
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  Speaker 1: change the way that we are opening up.
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  Speaker 2: Come December twenty. Is it a concern to you.
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  Speaker 1: Do you think that we are going to sort of
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  Speaker 1: see any hiccups with this new strain.
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  Speaker 3: The one thing I've got to understand working and living
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  Speaker 3: through this pandemic, Katie, is once you're strapped into the
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  Speaker 3: roller coaster, you never know what the next day holds.
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  Speaker 3: The reality is that this we could find ourselves back
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  Speaker 3: to square one and things being rolled back. I'm ever
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  Speaker 3: so hopeful that's not the case. And calm heads need
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  Speaker 3: to prevail at this time and we need to look
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  Speaker 3: at the facts and look at the science, and I'm
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  Speaker 3: sure our governments are doing that. But let's keep a
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  Speaker 3: calm head. Let's look to a positive future. But if
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  Speaker 3: things do move sideways, we just need to roll with
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  Speaker 3: them as we have rolled through all other decisions that
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  Speaker 3: have had and you know, we just need to take
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  Speaker 3: this day by day well.
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  Speaker 1: Tourism Central Australia CEO, Daniel Rochford, I always appreciate your time.
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  Speaker 2: Thank you very much for having a chat with us today.
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  Speaker 3: Thanks Katie, thank you