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Katie Woolf spoke with Tourism Central Australia CEO Danial Rochford · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Joining us on the line right now. Tourism Central Australia
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: CEO Daniel Rochford. Good morning to you, Daniel.
• 0:07
  Speaker 2: Good morning Katie, and good morning to your listeners.
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  Speaker 1: Daniel. How are things going in Alice Springs? Is it freezing?
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  Speaker 2: Yes, it's quite a chilly morning this morning, so beautiful
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  Speaker 2: blue sky, but certainly a crisp to the air.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah. And I reckon beautiful weather throughout the day, no doubt,
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  Speaker 1: perfect tourist weather.
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  Speaker 2: Absolutely, and great timing for of course the Think Desert
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  Speaker 2: Race this weekend.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah. Now, tell us how things are going when it
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: comes to accommodation and the impact that the lockdown in
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: Victoria is having.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, Katie, there's no doubt we've all our operators have
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  Speaker 2: seen some significant cancelations as a result of the Victorian
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  Speaker 2: Hotspot declaration. We're fortunate in some respects where because there's
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: been such unprecedented demand for travel to the Red Center,
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  Speaker 2: a lot of our operators have been able to fill
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  Speaker 2: some of the gaps that have been left. But it
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  Speaker 2: is obviously very sad and you know, our challenge to
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  Speaker 2: our industry with another hot spot, and just off the
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  Speaker 2: back of what was a terrible twenty twenty.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah. Absolutely, and you know, I no doubt you would
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  Speaker 1: have been anticipating quite a few people coming from Victoria,
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  Speaker 1: I would suspect for the Think.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah. Look, the committee itself have given some pretty big
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  Speaker 2: numbers in terms of the statistics of people coming out
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  Speaker 2: of especially Regional Victoria. This is the thing that the
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  Speaker 2: Committee and you know, the region is most saddened about
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  Speaker 2: is the wider regional declaration in Victoria because a lot
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  Speaker 2: of the people coming out of coming to Think live
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  Speaker 2: in Regional Victoria. And when that hot Greater Victoria was
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  Speaker 2: announced to the hot spot, that's then certainly scuttled a
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  Speaker 2: huge number of people coming to that particular event, but
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  Speaker 2: also the region as in total.
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  Speaker 1: So what kind of numbers were they talking with Regional Victoria.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, it was upwards of over two hundred plus wow.
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  Speaker 2: And that's a magnitude of entrance, spectators, volunteers, and the
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  Speaker 2: list goes on. So you know, that's a significant chunk
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  Speaker 2: of visitation which would have injected real money into our
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  Speaker 2: local economy. So that's disappeared. We are fortunate where there
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  Speaker 2: has been a demand from other states at this time,
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  Speaker 2: so all our operators are working for virtually trying to
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  Speaker 2: fill those gaps, but it's still you know, an impact,
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  Speaker 2: and like it was last year, Katie, with every hot spot,
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  Speaker 2: you know, we trust our government to keep us safe
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  Speaker 2: and we appreciate that, but at the end of the day,
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  Speaker 2: there's always downstream consequences and the tourism and hospitality industries,
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  Speaker 2: the industries that are feeling the front of it.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, there is no doubt about that, and it really
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  Speaker 1: demonstrates that, you know, this is still such a moving feast,
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  Speaker 1: it's still so fluid and we really have to try
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  Speaker 1: our best to make sure that we're supporting those sectors.
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  Speaker 2: Well, it's a roller coaster ride and look, we're all
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  Speaker 2: strapped in and unfortunately, our industry is keen to get
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  Speaker 2: off the coaster at the moment. But unfortunately, with these
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  Speaker 2: hot spots that keep on getting called, you know, we're
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  Speaker 2: still strapped in and it's just taking us for a ride,
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  Speaker 2: and unfortunately the negative impacts that has for our industry
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  Speaker 2: just keeps on moving.
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  Speaker 1: Now when you talk about you know about the bookings
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  Speaker 1: and the number of tourists and visitors that you've got
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  Speaker 1: in Central Australia. In Central Australia at the moment, how
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  Speaker 1: are things going.
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  Speaker 2: Oh, look overall, Katie, I'd have to say, it's suddenly
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  Speaker 2: just gone from nothing to it's been the most unprecedented
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  Speaker 2: demand I've ever seen in twenty years of working in
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  Speaker 2: tourism and hospitality. I have, you know, numbers coming through
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  Speaker 2: in the information centers and to our operators have been
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  Speaker 2: absolutely amazing and we've been at capacity essentially. We've just
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  Speaker 2: launched a major marketing campaign focusing on the Red Center
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  Speaker 2: right across the nation and certainly the early uptake of
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  Speaker 2: that campaign has been pretty impressive as well. So you know,
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  Speaker 2: we are that international that destination that the international destination
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  Speaker 2: you can't do right now. So you know, some people
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  Speaker 2: are seeing the Red Center as a great place to
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  Speaker 2: come to visit, and you know we're starting to see
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  Speaker 2: that demand come through.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, And I mean we're all hoping that the Northern
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  Speaker 1: Territory becomes a bucket list location for everywhere around Australia.
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  Speaker 1: But the concern I suppose that we've still got is
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  Speaker 1: these issues with the workforce, don't we.
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  Speaker 2: Oh a big time? And that's our big issue. And look,
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  Speaker 2: I think we need to do far more than what
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  Speaker 2: we're what we're seeing from governments at all levels at
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  Speaker 2: the moment. You know, we're certainly very appreciative of the
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  Speaker 2: fifteen hundred dollars support from the territory government, but that's
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  Speaker 2: not enough. We're not getting people even But I've got
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  Speaker 2: four positions currently at Tourism Central Australia and I'm not
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  Speaker 2: getting any applicants. I'd love to use the fifteen hundred dollars,
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  Speaker 2: so I'm actually not getting any applicants applying for the role.
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  Speaker 2: These are for positions upwards of seventy to eighty thousand dollars,
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  Speaker 2: not talking casual positions. So you know, we've got a
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  Speaker 2: real problem here in enticing people to the territory. We
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  Speaker 2: need to see governments roll up their sleeve here. We
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  Speaker 2: need to see more work done on especially around specific
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  Speaker 2: labor migration, working to get into the cities and being
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  Speaker 2: more proactive to try and encourage more people to come
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  Speaker 2: to the Northern Territory. You know, I have one of
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  Speaker 2: our directors saying to me, why aren't we going to
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  Speaker 2: Sydney and Brisbane and you being in the com main
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  Speaker 2: concourse of the railway stations in the morning and they're
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  Speaker 2: doing jobs fares at night. We're not doing that while
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  Speaker 2: other jurisdictions are being far more proactive. Unfortunately, while we're
• 6:26
  Speaker 2: sort of not doing that much, other jurisdictions are. And
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  Speaker 2: you know, at the moment, we have almost six hundred
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  Speaker 2: jobs currently vacant in the Red Center right here as
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  Speaker 2: we speak. Wow, and you know, the impact to our
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  Speaker 2: economy and our industries and is certainly being felt.
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  Speaker 1: They are massive numbers. I mean, when you're talking about
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  Speaker 1: six hundred jobs and then like you say, you know,
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  Speaker 1: to put that into context, we're then you know, we're
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  Speaker 1: promoting the territory, but we're not doing some of the
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  Speaker 1: things that others it's a doing to try to lure
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  Speaker 1: all those tourists to the Northern territory, whether it's Central
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  Speaker 1: Australia or the top end, but we can't. We're almost
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  Speaker 1: in a situation where if we got all of the
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  Speaker 1: tourists here that we want, we don't have all the
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  Speaker 1: staff that we need to actually service them.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, and that's the absolutely heartbreaking nature of this situation.
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  Speaker 2: Many of our operators here in the Red Center have
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  Speaker 2: had to close off rooms or close off seats at
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  Speaker 2: restaurants because they just don't have the staff to cater
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  Speaker 2: the demand. I guess I put it this way. Case
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  Speaker 2: is if that six hundred jobs was a mine, governments
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  Speaker 2: would be throwing out the red carpet, that would be
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  Speaker 2: doing everything in their power to attract those six hundred
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  Speaker 2: jobs to Central Australia. We have six hundred jobs currently vacant.
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  Speaker 2: This is a huge opportunity for economic development. This is
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  Speaker 2: as low hanging fruit as you can get. But we
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  Speaker 2: need more, We need more support.
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  Speaker 1: Is there something that you think could be a really
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  Speaker 1: great initiative or a great way to get you know,
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  Speaker 1: to get people here.
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  Speaker 2: Look, the answer is there is no one answer, and
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  Speaker 2: we have to do a multitude of different things. And
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  Speaker 2: kidos to the government. They put that package in base
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  Speaker 2: and I'm really appreciative of that, and I know some
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  Speaker 2: operators have taken advantage of it, but we need to
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  Speaker 2: do more. We need to do things like Pacific labor migration.
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  Speaker 2: I've had operators say, you know, there are opportunities taking
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  Speaker 2: advantage of people in Fiji or Vanawatu, or Bali or
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  Speaker 2: the Philippine. You know, we have essentially the Todd facility
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  Speaker 2: lying empty here in our springs. From that at the moment,
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  Speaker 2: with the hotspot, you know, we could be using that
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  Speaker 2: facility to try and encourage international labor migration into the
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  Speaker 2: Red Center. We need to be proactive in our major
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  Speaker 2: capital cities and to really showcase the benefits of moving
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  Speaker 2: to the northern territory. So yes, there's many things that
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  Speaker 2: we can be doing, you know, working with the Great Nomad,
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  Speaker 2: working on relaxing visa regulations. You know, there's a multitude
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  Speaker 2: of different things that we can be doing. We all
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  Speaker 2: need to be working as one on this. Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: And I know that Scott Morrison, the Prime Minister, last weekend,
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  Speaker 1: so not the one just gone, the one before obviously,
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  Speaker 1: he'd been in New Zealand and met with Jacindra Adern,
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  Speaker 1: the New Zealand Prime Minister, and they had discussed a
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  Speaker 1: potential travel bubble with places like Fiji and Vanuatu. I mean,
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  Speaker 1: if that was to come online, really it would need
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  Speaker 1: to happen immediately to have, you know, to be able
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  Speaker 1: to help us out sort of with the tourist season
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  Speaker 1: that's currently underway, wouldn't it.
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  Speaker 2: Absolutely? And this is the thing is that this is
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  Speaker 2: an immediate issue, you know. And this is the frustrating
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  Speaker 2: thing is that you know, we need this now, like
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  Speaker 2: it's not six hundred jobs in two months time. Six
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  Speaker 2: hundred jobs right now. So you know, whatever, whatever we do,
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  Speaker 2: we have to mobilize quickly. And that's the thing that's
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  Speaker 2: just not happening, Katie, is things aren't mobilizing quickly. Yes,
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  Speaker 2: And while we're just talking about it, Rome is burning.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, well this is the concern, isn't it. Now Just
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  Speaker 1: tell us quickly as well, Doniel. When we're looking at
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  Speaker 1: these six hundred jobs not being able to be filled
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  Speaker 1: in Central Australia right now, what kind of impact does
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  Speaker 1: that have not only day to day on those businesses
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  Speaker 1: that aren't able to fill the jobs, but when tourists
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  Speaker 1: come to the Red Center for a visit.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, look, you know it's pretty logical that without the
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  Speaker 2: level of staffing that's required, there's less services that can
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  Speaker 2: be offered. And you know, we have seen many of
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  Speaker 2: our hotels decrease capacity of rooms and also seats at
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  Speaker 2: restaurants to just be able to meet that demand and
• 11:02
  Speaker 2: to make sure that the visitor experience is an impacted.
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  Speaker 2: So but you know, at the end of the day,
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  Speaker 2: we have to be realistic. The visitor experience has been impacted,
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  Speaker 2: and you know we're seeing that we track our customer
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  Speaker 2: service as a region here through a program called review
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  Speaker 2: Pro and we're seeing already a reduction in visitor satisfaction
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  Speaker 2: which is directly a tribunal to that labor shortages issue.
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  Speaker 2: And so you know this has you know, obviously two impacts.
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  Speaker 2: One is the immediate one, which is the issue of
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  Speaker 2: the service delivery. But secondly it's our impact of our
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  Speaker 2: brand and you know this could have downstream negative impacts
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  Speaker 2: for our region if we're not careful well.
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  Speaker 1: Tourism Central Australia CEO, Daniel Rochford, it's always good to
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  Speaker 1: catch up with you. I really appreciate your time this
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: morning and really giving us that context when we talk
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: about jobs that are unable to be filled in the
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  Speaker 1: impact that it's having territory wide.
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: I think the moral to this story, Katie, anyone listening
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  Speaker 2: up in Darwin and they would like to come down
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  Speaker 2: to the Red Center. There's heaps of jobs on.
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: Off So take that cha well mate, you know we've
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: got a lot of people that listen to this show.
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: If you're able to fill those jobs by the end
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  Speaker 1: of the week, you better ring us.
• 12:16
  Speaker 2: And let us know.
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  Speaker 1: Sound good on you, Daniel, Thank you that is tourism
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: Central Australia CEO there, Daniel Rochford,