Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Katie Woolf spoke with Tourism Central Australia CEO Daniel Rochford

Transcript

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

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: We know that lockdowns around the nation are having a
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: massive impact in so many ways mentally, but also when
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: we talk about business and the impact on so many
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: different businesses and tourism. Tourism Central Australia have recently, as
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: I understand it, completed a survey into the impact that
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: lockdowns are having on the sector in the Red Center.
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: And joining me on the line to tell us a
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: bit more about the situation is the CEO of Tourism
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: Central Australia, Daniel Rochford.
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: Good morning to you.
• 0:28
  Speaker 3: Good morning Katie, and good morning to you listeners.
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: Daniel.
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: We know that the latest situation in New South Wales, Victoria,
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: South Australia, right around the place really is having a
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: massive impact not only in those states but around the nation.
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: How are those ramifications being felt for us here in
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: the territory.
• 0:47
  Speaker 3: Yeah, there's two things that are happening Katie, here in
• 0:49
  Speaker 3: Central Australia. One is we've actually got a lot of
• 0:53
  Speaker 3: grow nomads here in the town, so our caravan parks
• 0:56
  Speaker 3: are absolutely chockers at the moment, which is great to see.
• 0:59
  Speaker 3: And we're seeing a lot of people coming into our
• 1:01
  Speaker 3: information center in Allison Tennant, which is great to see.
• 1:06
  Speaker 3: But what we have seen essentially is the rug taken
• 1:10
  Speaker 3: out from under us in terms of our traditional fly
• 1:13
  Speaker 3: drive market, and that has just disappeared overnight with the
• 1:17
  Speaker 3: complete lockdowns right around the country, and we're hearing from
• 1:22
  Speaker 3: our members some catastrophic statistics. I've got an email in
• 1:27
  Speaker 3: front of me, sent to me just ten minutes ago
• 1:30
  Speaker 3: from a business owner that says he has had sixty
• 1:33
  Speaker 3: school groups in the last three weeks cancel in terms
• 1:40
  Speaker 3: of tour services with his business, which it equates to
• 1:44
  Speaker 3: a significant figure. And as you mentioned earlier, we have
• 1:47
  Speaker 3: just recently surveyed our members and been speaking to all
• 1:51
  Speaker 3: our members in terms of what that gamut of that
• 1:55
  Speaker 3: cost implication is. And we have over ten minutes dollars
• 2:01
  Speaker 3: worth of business that's been wiped off our businesses books
• 2:06
  Speaker 3: as a result of the lockdowns right around the country,
• 2:08
  Speaker 3: which is a significant impact. And I just in the
• 2:12
  Speaker 3: last two weeks I've had to refer to of our
• 2:15
  Speaker 3: operators to mental health support. It's getting to that stage.
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: Yeah, Look, I'm not surprised.
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: I'm not surprised at all that people are needing some support,
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: some mental health support given what's going on. I mean
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: ten million dollars over what period of time are.
• 2:31
  Speaker 3: We talking This is really just in the last since
• 2:35
  Speaker 3: the initial Sydney and Melbourne lockdowns to today, over the
• 2:41
  Speaker 3: next next two months, so as you can see, well,
• 2:47
  Speaker 3: what's happening in New South Wales. We're not sort of
• 2:49
  Speaker 3: expecting that to come back online anytime soon. No, it's
• 2:52
  Speaker 3: quietly confident that the Victorians have things under check and
• 2:56
  Speaker 3: hopefully that we'll start to welcome Victorians back shortly as
• 2:59
  Speaker 3: well South Australians. But at the moment it's looking pretty diabolical.
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: Yeah, now you said sixty school groups.
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: I would with that tour operator who'd said that that's
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: the volume of cancelations that they've had alone.
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: Was that over the last week.
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: And when we talk school groups, are we're talking like
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: obviously you know classes, I'm assuming so like twenty kids
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: if not more.
• 3:22
  Speaker 3: Yeah, absolutely, So, you know, it's a significant impact. And
• 3:26
  Speaker 3: this particular business is a small operator. And I had
• 3:30
  Speaker 3: another tour, another tour operator just last week. He had
• 3:37
  Speaker 3: two tours coming in. He spent ten thousand dollars on
• 3:41
  Speaker 3: buying food for that group, and because of the Melbourne lockdown,
• 3:45
  Speaker 3: the group canceled on short notice, So his money is
• 3:49
  Speaker 3: sitting in a freezer at the moment, and that's the
• 3:52
  Speaker 3: situation of many of our small businesses here in Central
• 3:54
  Speaker 3: Australia are facing. They've just had the rug pulled out
• 3:58
  Speaker 3: from under them.
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: Unbelievable.
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: Now, when we talk about you mentioned this before, the
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: mental impact that this has as well. But what you
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: know when you talk about that mental impact, you've said
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: that two of those people, you've referred a couple of
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: people to mental health support. But how big an impact
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: does this have on some of our tourism operators mentally?
• 4:20
  Speaker 3: Oh, there's no doubt. And I'm seeing this time far
• 4:24
  Speaker 3: worse than what it was last year. Last year there
• 4:28
  Speaker 3: was a safety blanket, a safety net there with job
• 4:32
  Speaker 3: keeper that's not there this year. And in our small
• 4:36
  Speaker 3: businesses have started that they're trying to keep on. They've
• 4:40
  Speaker 3: got fixed costs that they're still there and the money
• 4:46
  Speaker 3: isn't coming in as a result of the lockdowns. I
• 4:49
  Speaker 3: had an operator again just last week's say that twenty
• 4:53
  Speaker 3: twenty one is worse for him than what twenty twenty was,
• 4:57
  Speaker 3: which is pretty a sad indictment of the currency situation
• 5:00
  Speaker 3: and certainly what we're calling for KAD is that we
• 5:04
  Speaker 3: need some targeted assistance here. We're not talking about a
• 5:07
  Speaker 3: blanket scheme like job Keeper. It's a targeted scheme. I
• 5:10
  Speaker 3: could write on a piece of paper the thirty odd
• 5:13
  Speaker 3: side businesses here in Central Australia that need targeted assistance.
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: What would look like I've talked what would that target
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: What would that targeted assistance look like?
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: How do you reckon that this needs to happen with
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: the government.
• 5:27
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it certainly needs some form of financial contribution, whether
• 5:32
  Speaker 3: that's it's whether that's in a business hardship grand like
• 5:35
  Speaker 3: v NTG as previously provided, or some form of assistance
• 5:40
  Speaker 3: to keep staff on in a job keeper environment. So
• 5:44
  Speaker 3: you know, it's really just getting some of these businesses
• 5:48
  Speaker 3: to the other side of this problem. I guess you
• 5:52
  Speaker 3: and I have talked about many times. Our governments have
• 5:54
  Speaker 3: done a great job keeping us source safe and you know,
• 5:57
  Speaker 3: at all levels and all colors. The downstream consequence of
• 6:01
  Speaker 3: that is been the shattering of our tourism and hospitality
• 6:05
  Speaker 3: industries and we've faced it significantly so here in Central
• 6:09
  Speaker 3: Australia because of our high reliance on international visitation.
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, if we do look at a financial
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: contribution and a targeted sort of assistance scheme for some
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: of our tourism operators. I mean, I know that what
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: they'd done previously when we were in our own lockdown
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: here in the Northern Territory, we were talking I think
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: it was like one thousand dollars over a period of time.
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: But to me, that doesn't sound like it's sort of
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: going to go far enough in terms of helping business.
• 6:38
  Speaker 3: Well, we're talking on average of the people have responded
• 6:42
  Speaker 3: to our survey, we're hearing stories of over between one
• 6:47
  Speaker 3: hundred to two hundred thousand dollars of lost business. One
• 6:51
  Speaker 3: thousand dollars, though appreciated, is certainly nothing in comparison to
• 6:56
  Speaker 3: the losses being made by these businesses to no fault
• 6:59
  Speaker 3: of their own. You know, that's the challenge that we're facing, you, Katie,
• 7:04
  Speaker 3: and that's why our industry needs help, and we need
• 7:07
  Speaker 3: help now.
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: It sounds as this is a pretty acute situation Daniel,
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: that really, you know, based on these most recent survey
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: results that you've got, based on the feedback that you
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: are receiving from members at the moment, and based on
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: these most recent lockdowns interstate the situation is pretty dire
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: for some of our tourism operators. And you're really calling
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: upon the territory government right now to sort of to
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: step up and help out.
• 7:34
  Speaker 3: And I would also call on the federal government too, Katie.
• 7:38
  Speaker 3: I think both government tiers of government have responsibilities to
• 7:41
  Speaker 3: play here. But yes, you know, as I said, this
• 7:45
  Speaker 3: doesn't need a blank approach at the moment here in Alice.
• 7:48
  Speaker 3: As I said earlier, the caravan parks are doing really well,
• 7:51
  Speaker 3: some of our corporate hotels doing relatively well. But where again,
• 7:55
  Speaker 3: businesses are falling through the cracks that the businesses are
• 8:00
  Speaker 3: reliant on international visitation and tour operators, they're the ones
• 8:04
  Speaker 3: that have fallen through the cracks.
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: Yet again, Daniel, given the situation that your industry is in,
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: and you know what you've spoken about to me this morning,
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: how did you feel over the weekend then seeing up
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: here in the top end and around the rest of
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: the country people protesting.
• 8:20
  Speaker 3: Oh, look, it's just so sad to see that. To
• 8:24
  Speaker 3: be fair, Katie, look, I don't begrudge the right to protest,
• 8:29
  Speaker 3: but when it comes to the safety of our nation,
• 8:34
  Speaker 3: you know, it was idiotic in the extreme. In my opinion.
• 8:38
  Speaker 3: And you know a lot of work has been done
• 8:41
  Speaker 3: to try and lift these hotspots and lockdowns, and all
• 8:46
  Speaker 3: that just did was put that potentially under jeopardy, and
• 8:52
  Speaker 3: that to me is just very sad to see.
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: Hey, Daniel, before I let you go with that survey,
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: that you complete it and you know with some of
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: the feedback that you've received, is there anything else that
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: you reckon We need to know about that we as
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: Territorians need to be aware of really when we think
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: about our tourism operator and the impact that these lockdowns
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: are having.
• 9:14
  Speaker 2: At the moment.
• 9:15
  Speaker 3: Yeah, Look, I think with the industry is still very fragile, Katie,
• 9:20
  Speaker 3: and I would put this message out to all your
• 9:23
  Speaker 3: listeners this morning that the best thing that we can
• 9:27
  Speaker 3: all do is get behind our tourism and hospitality industries
• 9:31
  Speaker 3: right across the territory from the top end to Central Australia.
• 9:34
  Speaker 3: Come down to Central Australia the coming few weeks and
• 9:37
  Speaker 3: months to support our industry and likewise the great operators
• 9:42
  Speaker 3: in the top end. We're all doing it relatively tough
• 9:45
  Speaker 3: for some more than others, and now that time we
• 9:49
  Speaker 3: need your help.
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: Daniel Rochford, I always appreciate your time. Thanks so much
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: for having a chat.
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: With us today.
• 9:55
  Speaker 3: Thanks Katie, Well, thank you.
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: That's Tourism Central Australia CEO there, Daniel Rochford