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Katie Woolf spoke with Tourism Top End General Manager Glen Hindley · 360 with Katie Woolf

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  Speaker 1: Three sixties the week that was thanks to the silver
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  Speaker 1: hebron your local lawyers. We know the Hospitality, into and
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  Speaker 1: Tourism top End did a joint zoom call yesterday with
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  Speaker 1: over one hundred and fifty businesses. We know that cash
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  Speaker 1: flow for small business is smashed. It's certainly been a
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  Speaker 1: tough time for many. Now joining us on the line
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  Speaker 1: right now is Tourism Top End General Manager Glenn Hinley.
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  Speaker 1: Good morning to you, Glenn.
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  Speaker 2: Caady, Good morning, and good morning to everyone in tourism,
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  Speaker 2: hospitality and retail that are hopeful that they can get
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  Speaker 2: back to work, and also to all our visitors in
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  Speaker 2: the top end who are sitting in their room hoping
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  Speaker 2: they can get out and enjoy this magnificent part of
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  Speaker 2: the world.
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  Speaker 1: I tell you what we are all hoping that that
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  Speaker 1: is the case, and that's what we find out. Eleven
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  Speaker 1: o'clock the Chief Minister is expected to do that press conference.
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  Speaker 1: Glenn tell us a little bit more about this zoom
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  Speaker 1: call and how those one hundred and fifty business people
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  Speaker 1: are feeling at the moment.
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  Speaker 2: Well as with all things health doing a great job
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  Speaker 2: around the clock, but one of the challenges is the
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  Speaker 2: information coming out as to how we're placed, what continues
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  Speaker 2: the unknown, the uncertainty is causing an enormous amount of pain,
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  Speaker 2: and I think that's what was certainly one of the
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  Speaker 2: things that came out of yesterday's call was can we
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  Speaker 2: get any sense of what's happening? Can we get any
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  Speaker 2: sense of what triggers what things? Can we be looking
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  Speaker 2: for what would be the staged reopenings option, the A, B,
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  Speaker 2: C or D that we would be considering. And I
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  Speaker 2: think it kind of not kind of exposed for us
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  Speaker 2: an area that we haven't been in this state before,
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  Speaker 2: and for small businesses in particular, knowing what the possible
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  Speaker 2: options are so that they can be preparing from it
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  Speaker 2: for it is it from home and talking to their
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  Speaker 2: teams about what's anticipated should the call come. So I
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  Speaker 2: think there was a lot of that concern yesterday, But
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  Speaker 2: of course the bigger concern was around the well being
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  Speaker 2: of hundreds of top enders and territorians who are sitting
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  Speaker 2: at home with no income, and businesses who are really
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  Speaker 2: deeply concerned about how do they pay for their lease
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  Speaker 2: and their property, their vehicles, their vessels and fixed expenses
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  Speaker 2: litt alone look after those customers that are still in town.
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  Speaker 1: How tough are some of those people doing it right now?
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  Speaker 2: Glenn Well doing it really tough? And I think one
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  Speaker 2: of if we cast their money, if we can look
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  Speaker 2: at the July twenty nineteen figures for what the visitor
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  Speaker 2: economy is worth to the territory economy. For the top
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  Speaker 2: end alone, the visitor economy on a daily basis contributes
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  Speaker 2: seven point six million dollars and territory wide that's fourteen
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  Speaker 2: point one million dollars a day. Now all of that's
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  Speaker 2: turned off at the moment, and all of that is
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  Speaker 2: new money coming into it into our economy that pays
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  Speaker 2: for roads, pays for health, pays for policing, pays for
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  Speaker 2: everything else in all the taxes that are pays. So
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  Speaker 2: if you're a business in that the phones aren't ringing.
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  Speaker 2: The only phone calls you're getting at the moment, especially
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  Speaker 2: in the tourism space, is cancelations. So the outflow of
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  Speaker 2: cash out of businesses at the moment is enormous. As
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  Speaker 2: businesses want to do the right thing by customers, Yeah
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  Speaker 2: kind to offer a credit, we want you to come
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  Speaker 2: back next year, but unfortunately we've seen millions of dollars
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  Speaker 2: this week alone be refunded to domestic travelers more in
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  Speaker 2: Australia who are either canceling or deferring their trip. We
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  Speaker 2: hope deferring.
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  Speaker 1: It is heart wrenching for those businesses. And look, we
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  Speaker 1: all understand that you know that keeping territory and safe
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  Speaker 1: and healthy is the main priority. But I guess plenty
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  Speaker 1: of people are wondering, you know, if there's somehow like
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  Speaker 1: if there's a way that we can do things slightly differently,
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  Speaker 1: or that we can at least be communicating with the
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  Speaker 1: tourism sector and the hospitality sector a little bit differently,
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  Speaker 1: so you've got a better idea of whether you are
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  Speaker 1: going to need to sort of turn things back on
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  Speaker 1: from one o'clock today.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, with hospitality and tea and tourism top and we
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  Speaker 2: certainly and also do and Retailers Association was on that
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  Speaker 2: call yesterday as well, was to have a better business
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  Speaker 2: liaison with and Tea health. If you think about all
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  Speaker 2: businesses and each one of them has a network to
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  Speaker 2: hundreds of customers and hundreds of staff, so that we
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  Speaker 2: can work together on preparing businesses for what's ahead of us,
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  Speaker 2: for preparing our community and our staff for what's ahead
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  Speaker 2: of us that's really important. So I think one of
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  Speaker 2: the things we've identified is that we've got to improve
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  Speaker 2: the liaison not just with government business agencies and the
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  Speaker 2: Tourism Department, but with n T Health and because they're
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  Speaker 2: the ones who knows what's going on, they're the ones
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  Speaker 2: who are watching the markets and the being able to
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  Speaker 2: give that advice. So I think that's an area there.
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  Speaker 2: And I think also we learned this week the check
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  Speaker 2: in app is such a great thing. If everyone does
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  Speaker 2: it that way, we're able to identify really really quickly
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  Speaker 2: where everyone was, and we don't have to worry about
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  Speaker 2: being stuck in our houses when we could be out
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  Speaker 2: enjoying this great weather and people could be off the
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  Speaker 2: lounge and earning a wage now if I could just talk.
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  Speaker 2: I know of a couple of occasions of casual workers
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  Speaker 2: this week who are sitting at home in their rented
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  Speaker 2: apartment and with no income, and they've received also an
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  Speaker 2: email from their landlord saying, not by the way, your
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  Speaker 2: rend's going up twenty scent. So you can imagine what
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  Speaker 2: that's doing to the well being of thousands of territories
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  Speaker 2: right now, And that s an area we're really concerned
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  Speaker 2: about as well supply chainel issues in terms of hotels, restaurants,
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  Speaker 2: and Alex is much more versed in this aspect preparing
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  Speaker 2: for this because customers, if the call comes at one o'clock,
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  Speaker 2: everyone wants to go out, but does everyone have kitchen stocks? Yeah,
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  Speaker 2: we all set up ready to.
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  Speaker 1: Go well, and we will talk to Alex Bruce from
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  Speaker 1: Hospitality into in just a moment about that. But Glenn,
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  Speaker 1: while I do still have you on the line, talk
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  Speaker 1: us through you know, best case scenario I guess is
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  Speaker 1: that today at one o'clock or today we do hear
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  Speaker 1: that that one o'clock lockdown lift is happening. But just
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  Speaker 1: how quickly a tourism operators been able to turn it on?
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  Speaker 2: Well, that's that's a really challenging question here at nine
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  Speaker 2: point thirty on the day of to be able to
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  Speaker 2: communicate that sooner that we can be getting some indications
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  Speaker 2: from health as to what they're thinking about what they've
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  Speaker 2: got in mind. We had some input into some government
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  Speaker 2: agencies late yesterday which highlighted to us that a lot
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  Speaker 2: of those plans weren't being well communicated to us. The
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  Speaker 2: fact that we were being asked our view on different
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  Speaker 2: options so I think that's a really hard one to enter, Katie.
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  Speaker 2: I have to say because my members are saying, what
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  Speaker 2: does it look like? What does it look like? And
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  Speaker 2: at the moment I'm saying to them, my team's saying
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  Speaker 2: to them. So we're waiting to find out ourselves. So
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  Speaker 2: that's a really hard one. And I know that customers,
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  Speaker 2: if that call comes and they want to get out,
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  Speaker 2: we wanted to do it safely. We want to make
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  Speaker 2: sure that everyone's not only safe, but also satisfied and
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  Speaker 2: understanding of the situation. So there are a few businesses
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  Speaker 2: that are still holding, tentatively holding their booking for tomorrow, cruisers,
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  Speaker 2: people still hoping to get their weddings away tomorrow.
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  Speaker 1: I went to a celebrant about that yesterday actually, or
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  Speaker 1: last night. I spoke to a friend of mine who's
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  Speaker 1: a wedding celebrant, and I think that, you know, that
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  Speaker 1: is another point to make, like, it just impacts the
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  Speaker 1: people so widely and broadly, no matter what industry you're in.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, and so I don't know what the answer is there.
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  Speaker 2: That was the thing that was coming out of this
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  Speaker 2: call to your first question yesterday of what does opening
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  Speaker 2: up again look like? So that we can be prepared,
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  Speaker 2: we can have time, we can communicate with our teams
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  Speaker 2: and people can we can get our orders in to
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  Speaker 2: restock our kitchens, and we can start moving forward. I
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  Speaker 2: think one of the other things that came out of
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  Speaker 2: that yesterday was from across the board a desire that
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  Speaker 2: if to make vaccinations as readily available for everyone as
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  Speaker 2: they possibly can, to work to educate and encourage our community.
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  Speaker 2: If you've got serious concerns, we understand that, but have
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  Speaker 2: the processes so you can make informed decisions and to
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  Speaker 2: get that moving. And the other thing is we fought
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  Speaker 2: long and hard collectively as industry bodies for the check
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  Speaker 2: in app last year. We've got it. It shouldn't be
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  Speaker 2: just the businesses that have to make sure, it should
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  Speaker 2: be customers who are seeking to make sure, because we
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  Speaker 2: know by doing that we were able to protect each
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  Speaker 2: other much better.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, very fair call. Tourism Top End General Manager, Glenn Hinckley.
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  Speaker 1: We will leave it there. We're just going to catch
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  Speaker 1: up with Alex Bruce. We really appreciate your time this
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  Speaker 1: morning and we'll keep in contact. All the best to
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  Speaker 1: you and all of the Northern Territories tourism operators particularly
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  Speaker 1: those in the top end and Alice Springs at the
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  Speaker 1: moment who are really doing it tough. We are all thinking.
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  Speaker 2: Of you and Katie. If someone's struggling at home, reach out.
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  Speaker 2: There's plenty of great helplines around. Reach out, talk to somebody,
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  Speaker 2: reach out to friends if you see they're struggling, because
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  Speaker 2: well being is a real key for us. Also, it's
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  Speaker 2: not just the financial impact, it's the mental health impact
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  Speaker 2: that this is having on our community. We need to
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  Speaker 2: make sure that we're all got our arms around each
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  Speaker 2: other in a the pharical thing.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, you're spot on, spot on, Glenn. Thank you.