Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Katie Woolf spoke with Hospitality NT CEO Alex Bruce

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Katie Woolf spoke with Hospitality NT CEO Alex Bruce · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: So as you would have heard a little earlier, we
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: did catch up with the CEO of Tourism Central Australia,
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: Daniel Rochford, and spoke about the impacts of the most
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: recent lockdowns that we've seen around Australia and what that
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: means for us here in the Northern Territory. Joining us
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: on the line right now, Hospitality NT Chief Executive Alex Bruce.
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: Good morning to you.
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: Alex, Good morning, Katie, welcome back.
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: Oh thanks mate, good to be back now. Alex. I
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: know that you and I have spoken on numerous occasions
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: about the impact of the COVID lockdowns around Australia and
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: what it means for us here in the Northern Territory.
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: How are things going at the moment?
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: Yep, pretty quiet week, class week, not much to report
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: while you were off air.
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: Yeah, with South.
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: Australia went into lockdown as well. Unfortunately our fair few
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: stories bubbling locally as well. But look all jokes aside,
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: Daniel's writing hit the nail on the head. That drive
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: market's still quite strong and you know, Territorians when they're
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: out and about for the school halliday saw campsites, chokers
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: up and down the track, but the fly drive market
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: and our hotels, particularly in Darwin Analys Springs are half full.
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: Now when you know this time of year, gearing up
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: to cup Carnival and then Darwin Festival, they should be oversubscribed,
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: The should be out one hundred plus percent occupancy.
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: Yeah, So what kind of impact is it having in
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: terms of the occupancy rates for our hotels.
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: Look, they've dropped off a cliff unfortunately. And when this
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: all happened a week ago, there was probably still a
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: bit of a false positive and that town looked quite busy. Still,
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: everyone's experiences on the highways and doing weekenders out of
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: the watering holes were reporting the same thing. But what
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: we really see now is that it really starts to
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: bite right across tourism and hospitality the longer the lockdown
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: go on. For Pleasingly though it looks like South Australia
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: and Melbourne come out of it tomorrow. Our recent experience
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: following the Brisbane lockdown was that there was a bit
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: of an immediate boost in bookings coming back once our
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: border restrictions lift. So if it's d Day today and
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: we find out whether South Australia and Melbourne get out
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: of their lockdowns tomorrow. We really need to hear from
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: our government locally on what they're thinking about the border
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: restrictions from that point onwards for those two jurisdictions.
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: So really you think that they need to be discussing
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: that sooner rather than later and letting Territorians know exactly
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: what's going on.
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: Oh look, we absolutely understand they're putting the interests of
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: territorian's health first, foremost and last, and that's appropriate and
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: we don't want them to be running the risk of
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: having more lockdowns in the territory either. So we just
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: wait with baited breath to see how quickly after South
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: Australia and Victorian governments give themselves a green light, how
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: quickly we can look to welcoming those.
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: Markets back to now Alex, I know that obviously the
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: hospitality industry is quite a different one to the tourism industry.
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: But when we caught up with Daniel a little bit earlier,
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: he said that he does think it's time for the
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: territory government and also the federal government to maybe look
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: at more targeted assistance. Take a listen to what he
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: had to say.
• 3:16
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it certainly needs some form of financial contribution whether
• 3:21
  Speaker 3: that's it's whether that's in a business hardship grant like
• 3:25
  Speaker 3: the INTG as previously provided, or some form of assistance
• 3:30
  Speaker 3: to keep staff on in a job keeper environment. So
• 3:33
  Speaker 3: you know, it's really just getting some of these businesses
• 3:38
  Speaker 3: to the other side of this problem.
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: Do you think that we need to be looking more
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: closely at this type of thing across the board.
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: Look nationally, yes, we do. The impact on tourism and
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: accommodation across the country felt when large states or large
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: cities going to lockdown, not just those contained in the
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: lockdown areas. So you know, it's all well and good
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: that there's support funding from the FED flowing into New
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: South Wales and particularly Sydney now for those businesses and
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: impacted individuals, but right across the network Daniels right, tour
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: operators and accommodation houses just got hit for six as
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: soon as Sydney and Melbourne were taps were turned off
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: to us include and bearing mind that international boarders are
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: still way off in the Nevan ever, like our market
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: just shrinks exponentially, So these decisions that state governments take
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: in the interests of their local health outbreaks just echo
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: throughout the rest of the country, so we do join
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: the National Core for if not Job Keeper, some level
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: of support for particularly tourism and accommodation industries where possible
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: they can keep that connection between the employer and the
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: employee because we know on the other side of this
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: we will have a workforce shortage, especially while those are
• 4:59
  Speaker 2: international borders are restricted, so we want to try and
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: keep as many people in the territory connected to our
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: businesses as possible.
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: Yeah, Alex Bruce Hospitality NT CEO. We always, we always
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: appreciate your time, mate. Thank you very much for having
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: your chat with us today.
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: Thank you