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Katie Woolf spoke with Hospitality NT CEO Alex Bruce on school holidays and hotspots · 360 with Katie Woolf

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  Speaker 1: We know that these hot spots are having a real
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  Speaker 1: impact on territory tourism businesses and also our hospitality sector
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  Speaker 1: and joining us on the line right now, Hospitality NT
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  Speaker 1: CEO Alex Bruce, Good morning.
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  Speaker 2: Alex, Katie. What a day.
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  Speaker 1: What a day mate, Sorry to keep you waiting on
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  Speaker 1: the line there, Alex, I no drama book.
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  Speaker 2: It is an important issue. It's a very important report
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  Speaker 2: that's being published today. Leave it to others, but the
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  Speaker 2: public control through it and form their own views on it.
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  Speaker 2: Did want to jump in though, and say, apart from
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  Speaker 2: all of the things that the government and the Turf
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  Speaker 2: Club bored inness, we do know there are a lot
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  Speaker 2: of good people in the thoroughbred racing industry in the
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  Speaker 2: territory and that club as well. So yeah, the timing
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  Speaker 2: of this thing, it is what it is. But we
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  Speaker 2: are looking forward to a cracking racing carnival and we're
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  Speaker 2: working hard with that club to feel their work for
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  Speaker 2: shortages on the relevant days too.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, your spot on there. You know, I know a
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  Speaker 1: few people that do work at the Turf Club and
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  Speaker 1: they are tremendous people who do a great job, and
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  Speaker 1: I think that that's what's quite upsetting in this space
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  Speaker 1: as well, is that some of the incredibly hard work
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  Speaker 1: by people that work at the turf Club is being
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  Speaker 1: overshadowed right now in the lead up to what is
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  Speaker 1: going to be an incredibly busy time.
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  Speaker 2: That's it with massive flow on benefits throughout the tourism
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  Speaker 2: industry in the top d Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: Hey, let's go on to these hot spots, because we
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  Speaker 1: know that the hotspot declaration when it happened a couple
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  Speaker 1: of weeks ago around Victoria caused you know, a massive
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  Speaker 1: impact across the board for a lot of our tourism operators.
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  Speaker 1: But now we're in a situation where we're keeping a
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  Speaker 1: really close eye on what's going on in Sydney and
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  Speaker 1: we know that there is that hotspot declaration for Sydney
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  Speaker 1: and for some of those other local council areas Alex,
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  Speaker 1: what kind of impact are we seeing in the hospitality
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  Speaker 1: sector every time one of these hotspots is declared.
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  Speaker 2: Two steps backwards, one step forwards again seems to be
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  Speaker 2: what happens with us. So we did pleasingly see a
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  Speaker 2: high rate of resale of rooms the came available when
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  Speaker 2: Melbourne was closed to visitation, So there is a lot
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  Speaker 2: of demand out there from other Australians that want to travel,
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  Speaker 2: So some of this stuff is you know, it's probably
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  Speaker 2: better that the announcement was made on Wednesday that Sydney
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  Speaker 2: was going to be closed, comping into the school holidays
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  Speaker 2: than Friday or over the coming weekend. So that was
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  Speaker 2: the message we were getting from our metro based members
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  Speaker 2: that you know, unfortunately it looked like it was going
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  Speaker 2: a certain way, and don't really dally then because we
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  Speaker 2: need the opportunity to resell those rooms and recover costs.
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  Speaker 2: But you know, we're still talking hundreds and hundreds of
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  Speaker 2: room nights per those large venues that are wiped out.
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  Speaker 2: The teams are madly trying to resell them now, and
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  Speaker 2: we do have a lot of sympathy for Kakado and
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  Speaker 2: down down the track, especially in Central Australia. It's a
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  Speaker 2: lot harder and a lot more challenging for some of
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  Speaker 2: those remote, very bespoke products and packages to pick up
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  Speaker 2: when forty percent of their market gets wiped out in
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  Speaker 2: a single day.
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  Speaker 1: You know, like how many you know, how many rooms
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  Speaker 1: are you talking that are sort of impacted here? Do
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  Speaker 1: you have any idea?
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  Speaker 2: Look, we did a bit of a poll across the
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  Speaker 2: network yesterday, and definitely Sydney siders had started to cancel
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  Speaker 2: all week, even some of them probably in anticipation of
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  Speaker 2: us closing the border on the Wednesday night. You know
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  Speaker 2: they could see the riding on the wall down there probably,
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  Speaker 2: so cancelations were happening throughout the network, hundreds and hundreds
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  Speaker 2: of room nights. As I said, so when you think
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  Speaker 2: about some of those large hotels in Darwin, Analyis and
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  Speaker 2: out in Kakadu. But the challenge now is for them
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  Speaker 2: to as much as possible try and resell those and
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  Speaker 2: either to the territories for staycations or other Australians. And
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  Speaker 2: that's why you know last minute claunts from Brisbane or
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  Speaker 2: Adelaide or Melbourne now up we might be able to
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  Speaker 2: capture some of that in Darwin, but it doesn't get
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  Speaker 2: much further outside of dah And unfortunately for those last
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  Speaker 2: minute trips.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, and that's a real shame obviously when you think about,
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  Speaker 1: you know, all of our other operators around the place.
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  Speaker 2: That's it. And look the other thing that when I
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  Speaker 2: did call around yesterday, the sense of frustration with the
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  Speaker 2: slow vaccination rate in Australia is definitely growing and growing.
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  Speaker 2: You know, if you can bear with me, I'll read
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  Speaker 2: you a list of all the other countries that are
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  Speaker 2: far in excessive where we are for vaccination Israel, Chile, Iceland, Hungary,
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  Speaker 2: United Kingdom, United States, Lithuania, Germany, Spain, Greece, Poland, Belgium, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Netherlands, Austria, Portugal, Denmark, Slovenia, Estonia, Italy, Norway, Latvia, Sweden, Slovakia, Czechia, France, Canada, Italy, Turkey, Finland,
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  Speaker 2: Costa Rica, Mexico, Colombia, Japan, South Korea, can even have
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  Speaker 2: be friends across the ditch in.
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  Speaker 1: The list goes on.
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  Speaker 2: Just make the point, we've dropped the ball, and so
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  Speaker 2: what do you.
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  Speaker 1: Reckon needs to happen here, Alex? I mean, do we
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  Speaker 1: really need to, you know, to get things moving faster
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  Speaker 1: when it comes to the vaccination rollout?
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  Speaker 2: Today, the federal government's writing letters to other states thinking
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  Speaker 2: about brand new, build from scratch quarantine facilities.
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  Speaker 1: Yep.
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  Speaker 2: When we have been working with farmers, Luke Gosling Senator
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  Speaker 2: Sam McMahon, and we've been telling the Feds to have
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  Speaker 2: a look at Blade and have a look at Blade
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  Speaker 2: in four months now now allegedly one of them might
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  Speaker 2: be coming up to have a look at it on
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  Speaker 2: the weekend.
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  Speaker 1: I've been told that. So I have been told that
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  Speaker 1: we've got a situation where where the Minister for Home Affairs,
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  Speaker 1: Karen Andrews, is going to be here on the weekend,
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  Speaker 1: so we might see if we're able to get her
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  Speaker 1: on the show for next week. But yeah, I really
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  Speaker 1: hope that they're going to have a close look at
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  Speaker 1: Howard Springs and also Blading this weekend because my understanding
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  Speaker 1: with Howard Springs is that those repatriation flights and the
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  Speaker 1: funding attached is obviously attached to those repat flights. And
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  Speaker 1: if that's the case, well, I do think that the
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  Speaker 1: federal government needs to change the way that they're looking
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  Speaker 1: at things so that we can have some of those
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  Speaker 1: workers in there at Howard Springs, but they should also
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  Speaker 1: be taking a closer look, as you mentioned there at
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  Speaker 1: laden point.
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  Speaker 2: That that's it, and you know, to look more close
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  Speaker 2: closer at home as well. On the Department of Health
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  Speaker 2: Territory website and a Q and A part frequently half
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  Speaker 2: questions on on COVID, they say hurd immunity sixty five percent.
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  Speaker 2: We think, but we will let you know when we
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  Speaker 2: get closer to their like for fifteen months in is
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  Speaker 2: this really the best that our brightest and best health
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  Speaker 2: experts across the country can come up with? What are
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  Speaker 2: the key trigger points? When? What level of vaccination and
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  Speaker 2: inoculation will Territorians have to get so that if you
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  Speaker 2: go and travel into sdate to your family and friends,
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  Speaker 2: what's the relevant lockdown? When are we going to get
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  Speaker 2: to that point? No one's giving us any clear answers.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, well, Alex Bruce, we always appreciate your time. We
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  Speaker 1: are going to have to leave it there. Thank you
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  Speaker 1: very much for speaking with us today. Cheers, Katie, all
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  Speaker 1: the best, Thank you Alex Bruce. There the CEO of
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  Speaker 1: Hospitality in t