Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Tourism Central Australia CEO Danial Rochford is positive about what's to come with the vaccine pass dropped and plenty of events coming up in Central Aus

Transcript

Tourism Central Australia CEO Danial Rochford is positive about what's to come with the vaccine pass dropped and plenty of events coming up in Central Aus · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Now we have heard this morning obviously the Northern Territory
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Government and the Health Minister confirming that the vaccine passport
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: has indeed been lifted or dropped however you want to
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: put it for those hospitality venues, no doubt going to
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: be good news for those hospo venues. And we will
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: catch up with Hospitality NT CEO Alex Bruce just after
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: ten o'clock. But joining me on the line right now
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: is Tourism Central Australia CEO Daniel Rochford. Good morning to you, Daniel, Yeah.
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: Good morning Katie, and good morning to you listening.
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: Daniel. I'm not sure whether you had heard, but the
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  Speaker 1: vaccine pass obviously been dropped for those licensed venues. Do
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: you reckon that this is going to be a good
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: thing down there in Central Australia? Will our tourism and
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: hospo venues be quite happy to hear this?
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: Yeah, this is great news for the industry and look
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: at certainly well warmly welcomed and hats off to the
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: great team at Hospitality MT and the run that's been
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: advocating for this as well, you know where we're very
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: keen to see some of these rules starting to retract
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: to support our business. As I've said before, the governments
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  Speaker 2: have done a great job in keeping it safe, but
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  Speaker 2: now it's over to us for the business community to
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: really drive hard to rebuild our economy.
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: Now speaking oy building well, seventy million dollars an expansion
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  Speaker 1: for Lassner's hotel casino. What is this going to mean
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  Speaker 1: when it comes to tourism in Central Australia.
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  Speaker 2: Well, it's all happening, rain and pause. You know, just
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  Speaker 2: six months ago, you know, we were going through our
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: darkest days with the pandemic. And to just hear this announcement,
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: which is a seventy million dollar announcement for the redevelopment
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  Speaker 2: of the Lassida's Casino and hotel, is just a great
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  Speaker 2: shot in the arm for the future of the region.
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  Speaker 2: Obviously comes off the back of the recent announcement by
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: the Northern Territory government of a quarter of a billion
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  Speaker 2: dollars worth of investment support for the National Aboriginal Art
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  Speaker 2: Gallery and other projects.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, it is good news. What's it all going to
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: sort of look like? Does it mean a massive expansion
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  Speaker 1: for that hotel and casino.
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  Speaker 2: Very much so, a huge increase in rooms and some
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  Speaker 2: amazing amenities throughout the facility as well. But more importantly
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  Speaker 2: for the region, five hundred jobs during construction and five
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  Speaker 2: hundred new jobs in operation. So this is a massive
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  Speaker 2: redevelopment and a massive boost for the regional economy here
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: in Central Australia.
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  Speaker 1: Now, how are those visitation numbers looking? Have things been
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  Speaker 1: picking up a little bit? Daniel?
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: Yeah, very much like Katie. And it's greatly great to
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  Speaker 2: see visitors. I was down at the Rock just last
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  Speaker 2: late last week and that was the first time I've
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  Speaker 2: actually been to Earlaru and seen visitors to the level
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  Speaker 2: of what was nearly before. So it's great to see.
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  Speaker 2: And here now the springs, great to see people wandering
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  Speaker 2: around the town and getting out and amongst it.
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: Oh, that is really good to hear. And I know
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: that you know, the flights there hadn't sort of been
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  Speaker 1: as many flights. You and I had discussed that earlier
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: in the year. Have those flights re resumed or you know,
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: are we starting to see those levels back again.
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: We've got as you know, I think we got down
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  Speaker 2: to just two flights a week into Ularu from July
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  Speaker 2: will be to twenty six flights, So that is a
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  Speaker 2: massive turnaround in just a small amount of time, and
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  Speaker 2: certainly the same in the case is the case here
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  Speaker 2: in Alice as well. So we're starting to see flights
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  Speaker 2: come on and you know, certainly with Pajama this weekend
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: and a variety of other events coming up, it's going
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  Speaker 2: to be a good season from all reports. And let's
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  Speaker 2: hope we don't hear any more letters of the Greek
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  Speaker 2: alphabet or anything that might come from left field. You know,
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  Speaker 2: that's what we need the most at the moment, is
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  Speaker 2: just give us six months to build back the industry.
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: Oh yes, spot on, mate, that's fantastic. So back in
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  Speaker 1: July we're going to be back to twenty six flights
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  Speaker 1: going into Ularu.
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  Speaker 2: Yes, yes, so, And of course just last week Quanas
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  Speaker 2: had their first flight back into Ularu. Traditionally those flights
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: have all been Jetstar, so we're now getting Quantus Metal
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  Speaker 2: back to Ularu and yeah, so that's a good news
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: for the Central Australian region and it comes off the
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  Speaker 2: back of course, we've had just under eight million dollar
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  Speaker 2: marketing campaign that we've been putting out into the domestic
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  Speaker 2: market over the last few weeks and months, and that's
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  Speaker 2: been well received. And hopefully we'll start to see a
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  Speaker 2: huge uptake in visitation.
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  Speaker 1: I'm really pleased to hear that. I know it's been
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: a really tough couple of years. You and I, like
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  Speaker 1: I said a couple of weeks ago last week, we've
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  Speaker 1: spoken on so many occasions about some of the really
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  Speaker 1: dis pointing things that we've seen over the course of COVID,
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: particularly when it comes to tourism. So I think the
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  Speaker 1: fact that things are really turning around is wonderful. And
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  Speaker 1: as you've touched on, there is quite a few upcoming events,
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  Speaker 1: but Pajama this weekend, Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: The festival lights and yeah, all reports are looking great.
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  Speaker 2: We're have sold out throughout the town. So it's a
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  Speaker 2: great news. It's a great event, and it's going from
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  Speaker 2: strength to strength and we're certainly looking forward to it
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  Speaker 2: over the next ten days. And yeah, I think it's
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  Speaker 2: certainly made as well. For the future events, we've got
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  Speaker 2: a raft of different quirky events, the Beanie Festival and
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  Speaker 2: Desert Mob and Desert Song later in the years, so
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  Speaker 2: of course Red Cent and Nats of course later in
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  Speaker 2: the year. So you know, really look out. Go on
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  Speaker 2: to a website Discover Central Australia and see some of
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  Speaker 2: those events that you might interest you.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah for sure. Well, Daniel, lovely to talk to you
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  Speaker 1: this morning, and lovely to again here's some good news
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  Speaker 1: out of Central I think that you guys deserve it.
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: You know, it's been a tough couple of years and
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  Speaker 1: I really hope that we see Central Australia and indeed
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: the top end all around the Northern Territory. I hope
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  Speaker 1: that we start to see plenty of tourists again out
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  Speaker 1: there spending money in our local economy.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, fingers Christin. Thanks for all of your support, Katie,
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  Speaker 2: and yeah, here's tour hopefully were Brider twenty twenty two.
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: Yeah for sure, good on you, Daniel, Thanks so much
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: for your time this morning.