Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Tourism Central Australia CEO Danial Rochford says Alice Springs has lost more than $10 million in revenue from event cancellations and recent government repair measures don’t go far enough

Transcript

Tourism Central Australia CEO Danial Rochford says Alice Springs has lost more than $10 million in revenue from event cancellations and recent government repair measures don’t go far enough · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Well, I think we all understand that the tourism industry
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: in Alice Springs is certainly going through a tough time.
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: They're having to rebuild following the COVID pandemic of course,
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: and then impacted by the crime crisis, which attracted national
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: media attention, something we've spoken a lot about on this show. Now, well,
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: some including the Tourism Minister, have been spooking strong booking
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: numbers for experiences and events. Others are reporting ongoing cancelations.
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: Now Daniel Rochford, the CEO of Tourism Central Australia, joins
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: me on the line.
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: Good morning, Daniel, Good morning Katie, Good morning to you listen.
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: Apologizing that we're running late as well, Daniel, thanks so
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: much for still being able to join us. Good How
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: is the tourism sector going at the moment in Central Australia.
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: Look, it's still fragile, Katie, and for the reasons you've
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: just mentioned. You know, we're still you know, just coming
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: off the back of COVID and you know what was
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: straight into this what could only be described as a
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: fist or negative national media on our region. There are
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: people right across the country and you know, even some
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: people overseas that are reevaluating their visits to Central Australia
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: based on this negative media. And that's the feedback that
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: my members are telling me that they're getting a lot
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: of inquiry about whether it's safe to come to our
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: springs and you know, people evaluating whether actually going to
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: come or not.
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: I guess for a while there, Daniel, it wasn't you know,
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: it wasn't that safe from a lot, like from a
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: lot of people's perspective. Is it feeling as though it
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: is more so at the moment.
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: A little bit, Katie, I'd have to say it has
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: has certainly improved, but you know, we're still seeing a
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: lot of sort of nighttime you know, just to give
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: your listeners a perspective, our information center here has been
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: broken into twice in the last week, so you know
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: there's still stuff happening. It's not gone completely away, but
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: you know, certainly that national media has died down, which
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: has certainly a positive from our industry's perspective.
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: Now, tell me, are you able to sort of quantify
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: in monetary terms just what a loss it has been
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: in recent times or you know the way that things
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: are tracking. Yeah, Look, in.
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: Terms of the events that we have actually formerly lost,
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: so these are mostly conferences or gatherings of associations or events.
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: You know, we're talking well over the ten million mark
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: in terms of lost revenue to our regional economy, so
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: I'm being really conservative with that. I think it's actually
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: a bit more. But you know, at at very least
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: it's a loss of ten million dollars in our regional
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: economy which will be very hard to peg back, and
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: that's going to be one of the challenges that we
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: face into the forward year. And you know, we are
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: in a very fragile position. And look, it's just going
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: to take one or two little things extra. There's not
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: been a lot of positivity coming our way if there
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: are further challenges. You know, we are very much in
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: a fragile position.
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: Daniel. Are the booking numbers strong like the Minister is
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: saying for this year.
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: I wouldn't call it strong, Katie. I think they're very
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: you know, there are some members reporting that they're good.
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: I wouldn't say they're strong in any shape or form.
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: You know, as you're starting to see, you know, even
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: many of our events, our first one, which is fab Allus,
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: which I encourage everyone up in Dawen to come down
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: and be a part of that amazing event which leverages Priscilla,
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: Queen of the Desert. This is the thirty nine years
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: since the making of that movie, and that event really
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: showcases our region. But they're reporting to me that they've
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: got a significant softening and cancelation of bookings. We no
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: think would normally have upwards of seven hundred and fifty
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: bookings when they open their registrations. They only got five
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: hundred or just over five hundred. So you know, we
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: are seeing a softening generally of bookings across the region
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: and that's that's certainly of great concern to us.
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: We have also heard concerns being raised on the show
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: as well about the cost of flights to attend events
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: like Pachma. What are you hearing on this front and
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: is that making a difference as well?
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: Oh, you and I've talked about our issues. You know,
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: we've had crime and COVID, but that's the other one
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: is the cost of flight to get in and out
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: of this town is just astronomical at the moment. And
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: if you recall last year Quintus made the announcement, I
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: think it was about thirty thousand feet lost to us.
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: There is a change to their scheduling at the moment,
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: and we're just evaluating what that looks like. But it's
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: not going It's getting worse, not better. So I should
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: be in a position to be able to have more
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: information very shortly as that's only just hit us. But
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: I suspect it's all more bad news.
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: I'll be interested to hear when there is a bit
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: of an update, Daniel. We are fast running out of time,
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: and that is my fault because we're running late. But
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: we know that the government's rolled out a new ad
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: campaign well, a new campaign trying to attract domestic and
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: international tourists. This week they also announced another one million
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: dollars for a brand and trade campaign. Is it enough? No?
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: And look at look we welcome the announcement, and look,
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: you know, we have a frank and open conversation and
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: dialogue with our government, but this is certainly not enough
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: to support our industry. You know, we certainly need the government,
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: both territory and federal governments to be standing up as
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: they are standing up on our more societal issues as well.
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: But look, you know, we need to really face facts
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: here that we're seeing losses of the in the tens
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: of millions, and you know, a one million dollar campaign's
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: not going to cut it, especially when you're seeing the
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: amount of ads spend that's happening in the other states
• 6:11
  Speaker 2: and territories. This is just not going to be enough
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: to really make any traction. And you know some of
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: the other initiatives are territory wide initiatives, So you know,
• 6:19
  Speaker 2: the one million dollars for the Visitor Enhancement Program, that's
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: a territory wide initiative, not a Central Australian initiative. So
• 6:26
  Speaker 2: I think there's this is a good first step and
• 6:28
  Speaker 2: we welcome it, but our call to the government is
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: we need more.
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: Well, Daniel Rochford, I always appreciate your time. We'll chat
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: to you again, hopefully when we've got a bit more
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: sort of detail about what's going on with some of
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: those flights and things like that. I know we've had
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: lots of people that are really keen to get to
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: Alice Springs from up here in Darwin, but when the
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: cost of flights is so expensive, jeez, it makes it tough.
• 6:51
  Speaker 2: Well, it's also for you guys up there, you know,
• 6:53
  Speaker 2: it's getting more costly for dah than people flying anywhere,
• 6:58
  Speaker 2: but you add an extra zero for us the whole.
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: You know that's the challenge and you know it's going
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: to really strikes at the heart of the livability of
• 7:05
  Speaker 2: our town as well if you just put tourism to
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: one side.
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you're spot on, Daniel. I always appreciate your time. Mate.
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: Thanks so much for having a chat to us and
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: we will talk to you again very soon.
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: Thanks Katie, chairs thank you.