Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Katie spoke with Tourism Central Australia CEO Danial Rochford about the changes to travel into the NT

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Katie spoke with Tourism Central Australia CEO Danial Rochford about the changes to travel into the NT · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: But joining me on the line right now from Tourism
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Central Australia, it is the CEO, Daniel Rochford. Good morning
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: to you, Daniel.
• 0:07
  Speaker 2: Good morning Katie, and good morning to you.
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: Listen, Daniel, you and I spoke last week about the
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: need for a specific date realistically for us to work
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: towards when it comes to those borders opening up and
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: travelers being able to come to the Northern Territory who
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: were double vaxed. We didn't quite get that yesterday. What
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: was your reaction to the announcement from the Chief Minister.
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: Well, I think it was a great announcement to give
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: some certainty for students and those who are those territorianes
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: who might be living in other states wanting to come back,
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: But certainly from a tourism perspective, not even a lot
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: of joy there. We certainly heard a relaxation of the
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: fourteenth day period down to a seven day period sometime
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: in January hopefully, but the reality is that no tourist
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: will stay in a hotel room for seven days before
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: going on a holiday in the Northern Territory, So look
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: all at such time we can get to a stage
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: where that's much simpler for our visitors than well we'll
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: start to see visitation return.
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and look, I'm not sure if you heard, but
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: just a short time ago I did also speak to
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: the Tourism Minister, Natasha Files, and I ask the question,
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: you know, how is tourism going to cope over the
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: Christmas period and over the coming months, given the fact
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: that the reality of this is we're not going to
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: end up in a non you know, like we're still
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: going to be quarantining up until the end of January.
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: Hopefully by the end of January we'll move to the
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: no quarantine, but still that strict testing.
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: You know.
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: She reckons that she's hoping obviously that the tourism vouchers
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: and some of the other different initiatives that they've got
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: running are going to help, But is it really going
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: to help? Daniel?
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: Look, the reality is I think there's two cases of
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: COVID today in how These queen Plans, where a few
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: cops away from If how These Queensland is called a
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: hot we will lose our last flight coming in to
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: Ulara airport at the Rock, and that will mean essentially
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: tourism will grind to absolute halt for that part of
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: Central Australia, and certainly we're seeing a significant reduction and
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: visitation at the moment. And certainly the feedback I'm getting
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: from my members is forward bookings are almost non existent.
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: Is that right?
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: Yeah, And certainly one cavet to that, dokadie and accidentally
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: take the Minister's point around the territory vouchers. You know,
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: there are some operators who do very well out of
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: the vouchers, and you know they are still seeing bookings
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: through the voucher program. But look, that's nothing in comparison
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: to the markets that we would normally see at this time.
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: Albeit it's still very much our low season. It's something,
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: but it's certainly not to where we need it to
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: be to have our breads get to the other side.
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: And Daniel, you and I have spoken on so many
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: occasions about just how tough some of those operators are doing. Then,
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: as you've just pointed out, you know, at the likes
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: of all LaRue at this point in time, you have
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: still got those flights coming from Southeast Queensland. But with
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: this new traffic light system, I think a lot of
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: us are wondering when we do reach I think it
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: comes into place November twenty three, when we get to
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: that point and the rest of the nation starts opening
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: up and we're going by this traffic light system, whether
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: we're going to be able to have anyone traveling into
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: the territory.
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: There are certainly real doubts from the industry that we're
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: going to see visitation over this period. In fact, I
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: have multiple operators sharing with me their concerns that they
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: may see almost zero visitation over December and January. I
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: guess ultimately the other are variable is if COVID comes
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: into the territory over that period, there is always the
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: specter of a lockdown for us as well, and which
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: will of course grind visitation down to zero. So it's
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: not a positive time for the industry. We don't see
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: a lot of optimism. And of course there's a tsunami
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: at the back of this issue to Katie, which is
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: the fact that our industry is shedding staff. And I
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: had one of our biggest businesses here in Central Australia,
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: one of our biggest tour operators saying to me that
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: they have dropped down. This is a five million dollar
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: business down to just less than ten staff. So the
• 4:37
  Speaker 2: ability to then rebound quickly after we start reopening is
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: going to be near on impossible for our sector, and
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: so that's going to be the tsunami that comes after
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: this process. Once we see demand rebound, we're not going
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: to have the staff and the ability to supply that demand.
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: Daniel, it is such a tough time for you. And
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: I know that you are such an optimistic person. You're
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: a glass half full kind of bloke, but gee, it
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: must be tough at the moment. I mean, what is
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: your message for the government.
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: Oh, look, I think ultimately there's two things we are
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: You know, we do appreciate the great work governments have
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: been doing at all levels to keep us safe. And
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: as we've talked about, there are three ICU beds here
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: in our springs. We understand that the why the government's
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: wanting to undertake a cautious approach, but the reality is
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: we need to if we continue down that line, that
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: a government has to deal with the collateral damage, and
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: that damage is the tourism, events and hospitality sectors which
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: will get smashed as a result of no fault of
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: the business owners themselves. So as much support as we
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: possibly can through survival payments, support to get rebound. As
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: I said to you last week, the New South Wales
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: other than to announced a half a billion dollar support
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: package to allow the industry to rebound. I've had heard
• 6:07
  Speaker 2: no discussions of such a strategy here in the Northern Territory.
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: We need to be planning for that now, not in
• 6:15
  Speaker 2: the in the next few months. And workforce. The workforce
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: issue is something we need to be working on now,
• 6:23
  Speaker 2: not in March April next year when we're facing shortfalls
• 6:26
  Speaker 2: and stuff.
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: Daniel Rochford, I always appreciate your time. Thank you very
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: much for having a chat to us again this week,
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: and no doubt we'll talk again very soon.
• 6:36
  Speaker 2: Thanks Katie, thank you,