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Katie Woolf spoke with Hospitality NT CEO Alex Bruce · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Now we know that it was a massive weekend in
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: the territory, particularly here in Darwin. I've got to say,
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: with all of those people attending Base in the Grass
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: about fifteen ten ds, but reports in about eight thousand
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: of them were visitors. So what kind of impact has
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: it had for the hospitality industry? Well, joining us on
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: the line right now, Hospitality int CEO Alex Bruce, Good morning, Alex.
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: Gooday Katie Alex.
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: How did the hospitality sector go on the weekend with
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: such a large number of visitors?
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: Ah? How good of it being in the top end
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: right now? Walking around the restaurants are full, the pubs
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: and bar, the cranking. We do need more kid convoys.
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: They're a fair few taps around town that were covered
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: up yesterday and they're a mad scrambled to get at
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: replenished for the next weekend.
• 0:51
  Speaker 3: So what do you mean they ran out? They ran out?
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: Yeah, ran out of beer, not entirely, but yeah, some
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: of your favorite drops were a bit hard to find
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: around town. That the cool rooms were run quite low. Again.
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: Goodness me mate, that's like that is some breaking and
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: big news some of you some locations know.
• 1:15
  Speaker 3: Bit, what about the wine? Will we short on wine too.
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: I think they're realizing Carl Cox effect plus base. They
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: just need to keep a little old territory well stocked
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: throughout this season. We're going to have a bump up.
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: Ronnie my producers, saying she's a bit worried that there
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: could have been a shortage of shaw and smiths.
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: I think that's always in abundance of here.
• 1:40
  Speaker 3: It's a favorite, no doubt about it. But you just
• 1:42
  Speaker 3: talk us through.
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: I mean, have you got any idea like how much
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: beer actually flowed on the over the weekend.
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: No, but I do know that they've got more trucks
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: on the road. They had to put more trucks on
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: the road after Carl Cox weekend. That one probably caught
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: more by surprise just how big it was going forward. Yeah,
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: it's a lovely problem to have where we need the
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: Southern brewers to just keep the supplier.
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so just let me delve into this a bit
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: more deeply, Alex Bruce. So the kegs, we ran short
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: on the kegs, but we're still alright with the bottled stuff.
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: Yes, that's right, right.
• 2:19
  Speaker 3: Wow, Well it just goes to show you really how
• 2:22
  Speaker 3: busy it's been.
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: But also I guess you know, what we've seen over
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: the last six months or so is it's been tough
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: on a lot of businesses. When you talk about going
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: through those COVID times and now with such an influx
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: of visitors, it's a wonderful thing, but yet it also
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: means that I guess in some cases we may not
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: have been expecting such a high volume of people.
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: That's it. And you know, the police reported that the
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: festival particularly was quite well behaved that the before and after,
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: the days before and after. You know, there's the odd
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: incident here or there that Southerners have come up and
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: they're largely behaved. They're jumping on those orange scooters. I
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: feel like there's ten times as many orange scooters around
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: town at the moment.
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: Well, we've got Lord Mere combat scarlets on next we
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: can ask him about that. How are we going in
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: terms of the hotels are they are they?
• 3:10
  Speaker 3: Are they full?
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: Yes, they have been full over the last couple of
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: weekends and most weekends going forward Darwin Cup weekend. It's
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: very very tight already Darlin Festival after that. So not
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: all rooms and not all properties are back online and
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: some of it. If you're a hotel and you're completely closed.
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: It'd be really hard to reopen now and staff up
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: an entire operation. So we are working with not full capacity.
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: It's not it's not out of any desire to do so.
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: And we know that that then does knock onto some
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: of the tour operators, restaurants and and other parts of
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: the tourism and hospitality space. So there has been a
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: concerted effort, particularly in their common sector, to boost workers
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: so that more capacity can come online. Darwin's doing a
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: lot better. It's quite a cute down in the Red
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: Center at the moment. Unfortunately.
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: Yeah, Hey, just talking about you know, not all of
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: the hotels being back to that full capacity, and as
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: you said, some of them not online. What percentage would
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: you say that we do sort of have back online
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: at this point.
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: I don't really have that figure, and I think it
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: does change on a daily basis when you think about
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: how your roster up to house keep all those rooms
• 4:37
  Speaker 2: and also have the cooks and chefs to do the
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: breakfast buffet and in the morning. They seem to be
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: the two pinch points in that sector, and so they
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: will surge around weekends so that there are more rooms available.
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: They're trying to link up with major events to make sure.
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: You know, we sent some staff down when Alice was
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: cranking over the cup, and we're hoping to get some
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: Alice staff up when we really hit that August peak.
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: So we're doing what we can to try and fill
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: the gap.
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: Yeah, Alex, talk us through those workers. I mean, how
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: many workers are we short now? I know a couple
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: of weeks ago we were talking seven thousand, but how
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: are we placed at the moment.
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: Look, it's really hard because the wave has hit us.
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: And I suppose Farmers realized as soon as the International
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: Board has closed twelve months ago that they were going
• 5:28
  Speaker 2: to have a workforce shortage. And Paul and Anti Farmers
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: have led the nation in some of the stuff they've
• 5:34
  Speaker 2: done in getting seasonal workers in. Over the last twelve months.
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: We had to go closing, laying everyone off job keeper,
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: putting them all back on the books, reopening. You know,
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: sheath it only you couldn't stand up to have a
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: beer and you must have a bowl of ships. So
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: we probably came to the workforce shortage issue a lot later.
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: And we were ride up to Christmas. You know, there
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: were these snap closures going on down South that was
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: wiping out a large chunk of our forward bookings every
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: time it happens, So we didn't really know that we'd
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: have the problem that we now face. So by the
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: time we really did that survey at hit crisis point,
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: it was already on the cusp of Alice Springs going
• 6:15
  Speaker 2: nuts with part of it, you know, and now Darwin's
• 6:18
  Speaker 2: in full swing. So even our businesses, if I were
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: to survey them today, I'd get less responses because everybody
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: is on the tools. You've got general managers out of
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: Kakadu that are part of the house keeping staff going
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: around making beds. Every mum and dad restaurant operator are
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: working phenomenal hours right now. So it is what it is.
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: Bear with us, We'll get through it and we really
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: shift now for some of these longer term solutions. Blade
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: and Point, if we could work with NTI Farmers and
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: the governments, we need.
• 6:50
  Speaker 3: Companies with that, Blade and Point.
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: I know it's something that you and nt Farmers have
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: been talking about for such a long period of time.
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: You know, you and I have discussed it before. I've
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: certainly up with Paul Burke about it before as well.
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: But the Prime Minister put it back on the agenda yesterday.
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: From your perspective, how helpful would it be to have
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: a facility like blading point back online.
• 7:13
  Speaker 3: Or put online.
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: We need to we need to appreciate that next year
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: we're going to have another bumper season and we need
• 7:21
  Speaker 2: to get some of our critical skilled workers back landed, safe, quarantined, vaccinated,
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: all the rest of it landed, probably by the end
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: of the year, otherwise we will be not fully playing
• 7:35
  Speaker 2: with next season either.
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: So by the sounds of it, it's really about talking
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: about having some of those strategies in place for the
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: longer term, longer down the track than just this dry season.
• 7:47
  Speaker 2: Yes, Look, it's not going to give us an immediate
• 7:49
  Speaker 2: workforce boost in the next month when we need it,
• 7:53
  Speaker 2: but we've got to start working on it. Other states
• 7:55
  Speaker 2: are working on it, and I do look at some
• 7:58
  Speaker 2: more positive action parts of the country on it than
• 8:01
  Speaker 2: in the territory at the moment. Unfortunately, because we need
• 8:05
  Speaker 2: to tackle this before next season ramps up, you.
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: Would understand what's your understanding of why it's not happening
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: at this point in time.
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: Look, we definitely have sympathy for some of the issues
• 8:20
  Speaker 2: that both governments and industry are all trying to tackle
• 8:22
  Speaker 2: and there are limited health people that can assist in
• 8:28
  Speaker 2: having another large quarantine facility running. It's the Defense are
• 8:32
  Speaker 2: in there now and they've all got their own health
• 8:35
  Speaker 2: experts and all the rest of it. We really love
• 8:38
  Speaker 2: Defense Health to stick around and help us run the
• 8:41
  Speaker 2: facility going forward. But you know, if that's not possible,
• 8:44
  Speaker 2: then where do we How do we solve the health question?
• 8:47
  Speaker 2: I suppose is the sticking point at the moment. Look, look,
• 8:50
  Speaker 2: the big change from when we hit the panic button, though,
• 8:53
  Speaker 2: has been that international student hours relaxation. They can work
• 8:58
  Speaker 2: more than twenty hours a week, which limited to I've
• 9:01
  Speaker 2: got many many operators around town saying they saw an
• 9:05
  Speaker 2: immediate impact on their rosters and that's helped.
• 9:08
  Speaker 3: That's good, That's really good to hear.
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: I mean, at least then it goes part of the
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: way in terms of making sure that it helps to
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: fill some of those positions.
• 9:17
  Speaker 3: Alex just looking.
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: At things, I guess from a bit of a different perspective,
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: taking into account the massive success that we've seen as
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: a result of some of these major events like bas
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: In the Grass and Kyle Cox, we know that we've
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: got things like the Darwin Festival, the Darwin Cup coming up.
• 9:33
  Speaker 3: But you know, when we look to the wet.
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: Season and how things are going to go, then for
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: the wet season, is this an area that we realistically
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: need to be trying to expand in to keep the
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: Northern territory moving and to keep those visitors coming in
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: a season which is traditionally a much slower one for us.
• 9:52
  Speaker 2: Look, there's probably mixed schools of thoughts on that, even
• 9:56
  Speaker 2: within our industry. We know that there's a lot of
• 9:59
  Speaker 2: focus on expanding the shoulders on either side of our
• 10:02
  Speaker 2: peak season, and this year that's definitely happened. Even naturally,
• 10:07
  Speaker 2: we've hit peak season a lot earlier on and it
• 10:10
  Speaker 2: will last a lot longer as well. About stimulating the
• 10:15
  Speaker 2: wet you know, we saw the benefit from those territory
• 10:18
  Speaker 2: tourism vouchers. The best wet season boost that we've seen
• 10:23
  Speaker 2: ever was from locals being incentivized to get out and about.
• 10:26
  Speaker 2: It's still so much harder to get southern older travelers
• 10:31
  Speaker 2: to come and experience the build up all the wet
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: season with us, but we're very happy that this next
• 10:38
  Speaker 2: week wet season, at least the locals that are already
• 10:41
  Speaker 2: here are going to be stimulated to get out and
• 10:44
  Speaker 2: about and see their own backyard. And for a four
• 10:48
  Speaker 2: million dollar spend, we saw the benefit of that was
• 10:51
  Speaker 2: a lot larger than tropical lights or something like that
• 10:55
  Speaker 2: affecting that accepting that their season got impacted by the
• 10:58
  Speaker 2: bushfires down south and then the COVID hit, but you're
• 11:02
  Speaker 2: talking a similar amount of spend and we just got
• 11:05
  Speaker 2: so much more reboost from giving it to locals.
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: Well, Alex Bruce, we are going to have to get
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: ready to wrap up, but mate, just very quickly, are
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: you expecting that truck to arrive with all the beer
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: before the weekend?
• 11:18
  Speaker 2: I think we mean multiple trucks. It looked like the
• 11:21
  Speaker 2: vps are coming early with their teams.
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: And then you've got the Hospitality Industry Awards night tomorrow night.
• 11:28
  Speaker 3: You probably need a truck for that.
• 11:30
  Speaker 2: Yeah, we'll give that a good shake, coating and we've
• 11:32
  Speaker 2: got a very good MC again this year, So a
• 11:35
  Speaker 2: great night.
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: I'll try my best. Good on you, Alex Bruce. Good
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: to catch up with you, mate, Thank you, thank you.
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: That is Hospitality and t CEO there, Alex Bruce. I
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: tell you what that was a bit of a bombshell
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: that he dropped with us there at the start, that yeah,
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: that we certainly drank a lot of beer by the
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: sounds of it, over the course of the weekend