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Katie Woolf spoke with Tourism Top End General Manager Glen Hingley · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: But joining me on the line right now is Tourism
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Top End General Manager Glenn Hindley. Good morning to you.
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Glenn Atty, Good morning, yeah, really well, sorry we're running late.
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: We had the Chief Minister in just talking us through
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: some of these changes that have been announced today. When
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: it comes to that additional measure of safety, I guess
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: you'd say, as the border is open and Ozzie's hopefully
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: start to travel a little more freely. But we also
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: know of course that these another round of tourism vouchers
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: come into play. I believe at eight o'clock tonight.
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: Yeah, today's to day that we get to help territory
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  Speaker 2: businesses keep more territories that work in the tourism industry
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  Speaker 2: and a job by having a subsidized holiday, which is great.
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  Speaker 2: So at eight o'clock tonight there will be first round
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  Speaker 2: twelve thousand vouchers will be put up for grabs and
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: that's on Territory Voucher dot NT dot gov dot AU.
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: And then with that, similar to round one where there
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: was over five point two million dollars put forward by
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: a government that was matched by territorians, so over ten
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  Speaker 2: million dollars were spent across the territory, which was terrific
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  Speaker 2: and certainly went a long way to helping. Like I said,
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  Speaker 2: small businesses and territorians keep their jobs in a desperate
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: time of need by having a holiday.
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  Speaker 1: It's had a big impact, hasn't it. It has really
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  Speaker 1: been a good thing those vouchers, the first rounds, the
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  Speaker 1: first round of vouchers. I mean you still I would
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  Speaker 1: imagine that the tourism industry is still finding it pretty tough,
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  Speaker 1: considering the fact that we usually have millions of people
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  Speaker 1: crossing the border to come and visit the territory.
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  Speaker 2: Absolutely, Katie, it's a really great point. It came at
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  Speaker 2: a point there where businesses were closed and it was
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  Speaker 2: a good way to get people out and about and
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: to get business open. That said, I was in an
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  Speaker 2: all day seminar with different associations and businesses last Friday,
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  Speaker 2: and from a tourism perspective, many of our businesses still
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  Speaker 2: haven't seen any real customers. They've seen the vouchers, which
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  Speaker 2: has been able to keep them partially operational at about
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  Speaker 2: thirty percent of what they work, which is great. That
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  Speaker 2: means they're able to pay the bills, keep the lights on,
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  Speaker 2: keep some staff employed, which has been terrific, and now
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  Speaker 2: we're going into an unknown space, which is of course
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  Speaker 2: the wet season where normally a lot of locals here
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  Speaker 2: might head into state for Christmas New Year or head
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  Speaker 2: to Bali, and we know that the Balley Entaireland options
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: aren't available. So this is a really good option for
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  Speaker 2: people to be able to support those businesses that have
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  Speaker 2: done extraordinarily hard. And when we talk about the numbers there,
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  Speaker 2: our tourism industry employs one in eight people, one in
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  Speaker 2: eight territories employed in tourism nationally, that's one in fourteen
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  Speaker 2: for the economy. Last year it was a two point
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  Speaker 2: four billion so when ten million dollars was raised out
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  Speaker 2: around one ten million dollars doesn't go a long way
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  Speaker 2: to filling that ten point four billion dollar hole. Yeah,
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  Speaker 2: and tourism provides for the Northern territory.
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  Speaker 1: Glenn talk us through how this second round is going
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  Speaker 1: to work, because I know that first round, well they
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  Speaker 1: went pretty fast. Lots of people missed out, Yeah, a.
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: Number of learning and it was really really popular. So
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: what happened last time? That was at midnight, so now
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  Speaker 2: it's at eight o'clock tonight that that'll come online Territory
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  Speaker 2: Vouchers dot NT, dot go dot au and then people
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  Speaker 2: will find out within twenty four hours after whether they've
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: got a voucher. Now, the first round will come out
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  Speaker 2: on Wednesday of vouchers, there'll be another round on Thursday,
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  Speaker 2: and there'll be another release on Monday. This is because
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  Speaker 2: we want everyone to have the best experience they possibly can.
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  Speaker 2: Last time, we had twenty six thousand vouchers becoming available
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  Speaker 2: at one time in the middle of school holidays. And
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: when you've got twenty six thousand people trying to redeem
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: their vouchers the next day, it was it exceeded everyone's
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: expectations for help popular it would be, so I think
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  Speaker 2: the lessons learn't there. So first round is the two
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: hundred dollars ourcher stands as last time. So if you
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  Speaker 2: were lucky to get about your last time, you know
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  Speaker 2: how that operates and you can go and do that again.
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  Speaker 2: Or you heard how your friends and family use their voucher.
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  Speaker 2: You saw that you can do that and let's effectively
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  Speaker 2: go online to tourism top end dot com dou or
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  Speaker 2: you can go to the Catherine Visitor Information Center. We
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  Speaker 2: will come into the century even better with that voucher.
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  Speaker 2: Now there's a second part to these vouchers, which is
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: called the bonus claim. Now this is new. This is
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  Speaker 2: that if you travel within the one itinery four hundred
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  Speaker 2: kilometers or more away from your permanent place of residence,
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  Speaker 2: you can claim back through the Focus Tourism NTEE an
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  Speaker 2: additional bonus home of two hundred dollars. So a couple
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  Speaker 2: of little important steps here, because some people go hang
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  Speaker 2: on the sect. That sounds a bit confusing, and you
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  Speaker 2: do need to be careful when you book that itinery,
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  Speaker 2: the initial itinery. The sequential order of that the itinery
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  Speaker 2: is that experiences amount to four hundred kilometers before you
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  Speaker 2: head for home wherever you live in the territory. If
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  Speaker 2: you're four hundred klometers away from that last point, a
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: last experience, then you can apply back to that important
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  Speaker 2: part here. When you make your initial booking, you have
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  Speaker 2: seven days to register. That you have seven days to
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: register after you make the booking, regardless when you travel.
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  Speaker 2: So I'm going to say this again. Sorry, I think
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  Speaker 2: I confuse.
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  Speaker 1: That's right.
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  Speaker 2: Don't get booking with us if you make the booking
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  Speaker 2: with us on Friday, for example, and your travel is
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  Speaker 2: not till January because these are valid up until the
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  Speaker 2: end of January. So you make the booking on Friday
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  Speaker 2: through the Center and you're traveling in January, and it
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  Speaker 2: will be for more than four hundred dollars of f
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  Speaker 2: one hundred kilometers. You need to have registered for the
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  Speaker 2: bonus claim within seven days of making the booking, so
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  Speaker 2: by Friday week you need to have gone online and said,
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  Speaker 2: here's the itinery I booked at Tourism top Ends. I
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  Speaker 2: believe it travels more than four hundred kilometers and then
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  Speaker 2: they'll confirm that back and then when you travel in January,
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  Speaker 2: you have seven days upon coming back to have to
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  Speaker 2: apply put in to make the final pass for that
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  Speaker 2: bonus claim.
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  Speaker 1: And Glen, we will make sure that we are di
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  Speaker 1: wreck people to the Territory Voucher dot NT dot gov
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  Speaker 1: dot AU website and also encourage people to go to
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  Speaker 1: Tourism top End or Tourism Central Australia's website or also
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  Speaker 1: the Catherine Visitor Information Central website. Isn't it so that
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  Speaker 1: everybody's able to work out exactly what they need to
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  Speaker 1: do so they can spend that money and support our
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  Speaker 1: wonderful tourism operators, Glenn, just very quickly before we wrap up.
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  Speaker 1: As I mentioned right at the start of the interview,
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  Speaker 1: the Chief Minister has been out this morning and made
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: those announcements in regard to people obviously going into two
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: different locations. They are announcing that in coming weeks they
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  Speaker 1: are going to set up a system in the Northern
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: Territory for that contact tracing, so people will have to
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: hand over or will have to sort of log their details.
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  Speaker 1: Is this going to be a good thing for tourism
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  Speaker 1: in the Northern Territory in terms of really keeping those
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  Speaker 1: additional safeguards.
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: Oh, absolutely, Kat, We've been calling on this for a while.
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  Speaker 2: What we need is that we need something that I
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: think the sooner the better that we can put this
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: in place, and something that is easy and practical put
• 7:05
  Speaker 2: in place by government because our staff, our community, they
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  Speaker 2: want that comfort and our tourists want that comfort. So
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: to know that if they walk into a place that
• 7:16
  Speaker 2: if I'm in the unfortunate event that we have to
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  Speaker 2: expect someone was coughing in that space and created that
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  Speaker 2: alarm that we know immediately who to call and to
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  Speaker 2: be able to trace that and track that room quickly.
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  Speaker 2: So from a tourism perspective. We've got a number of
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  Speaker 2: tourism operators who have already had to go and find
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  Speaker 2: who have found their own programs. We've been running workshops
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  Speaker 2: with our tourism sector at the moment to what does
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  Speaker 2: a Q register check in check our process look like.
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  Speaker 2: But the second part's really important too, the secure the
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  Speaker 2: cure keeping of that database of who was in your
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  Speaker 2: business for the last twenty eight days. It's really important
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  Speaker 2: that businesses think about that process because there's a lot
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  Speaker 2: of people that are out to hack everything these days,
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  Speaker 2: and I want to make sure that the government puts
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  Speaker 2: forward a process that it gives safety to the customers
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  Speaker 2: and gets safety to the businesses who are holding that
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  Speaker 2: data on behalf of government.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, one hundred, I totally agree with that sentiment, Glenn.
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  Speaker 1: We are going to have to leave it. They're always
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: good to catch up with you. Thank you so much
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  Speaker 1: for your time today.
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  Speaker 2: Thank you very much. About two eight o'clock, everybody, get on.
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  Speaker 1: Board, get on board. Good on you, Glenn. Thank you.
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: That is Tourism top end general manager there, Glenn Hinley,
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  Speaker 1: and we will make sure that we share that link
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  Speaker 1: as well and give you a bit more detail throughout
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: the morning,