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Speaker 1: But joining me on the line right now from Tourism

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Speaker 1: Central Australia, it is the CEO, Daniel Rochford. Good morning

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Speaker 1: to you, Daniel.

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Speaker 2: Good morning Katie, and good morning to you.

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Speaker 1: Listen, Daniel, you and I spoke last week about the

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Speaker 1: need for a specific date realistically for us to work

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Speaker 1: towards when it comes to those borders opening up and

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Speaker 1: travelers being able to come to the Northern Territory who

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Speaker 1: were double vaxed. We didn't quite get that yesterday. What

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Speaker 1: was your reaction to the announcement from the Chief Minister.

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Speaker 2: Well, I think it was a great announcement to give

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Speaker 2: some certainty for students and those who are those territorianes

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Speaker 2: who might be living in other states wanting to come back,

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Speaker 2: But certainly from a tourism perspective, not even a lot

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Speaker 2: of joy there. We certainly heard a relaxation of the

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Speaker 2: fourteenth day period down to a seven day period sometime

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Speaker 2: in January hopefully, but the reality is that no tourist

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Speaker 2: will stay in a hotel room for seven days before

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Speaker 2: going on a holiday in the Northern Territory, So look

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Speaker 2: all at such time we can get to a stage

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Speaker 2: where that's much simpler for our visitors than well we'll

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Speaker 2: start to see visitation return.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, and look, I'm not sure if you heard, but

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Speaker 1: just a short time ago I did also speak to

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Speaker 1: the Tourism Minister, Natasha Files, and I ask the question,

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Speaker 1: you know, how is tourism going to cope over the

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Speaker 1: Christmas period and over the coming months, given the fact

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Speaker 1: that the reality of this is we're not going to

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Speaker 1: end up in a non you know, like we're still

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Speaker 1: going to be quarantining up until the end of January.

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Speaker 1: Hopefully by the end of January we'll move to the

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Speaker 1: no quarantine, but still that strict testing.

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Speaker 2: You know.

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Speaker 1: She reckons that she's hoping obviously that the tourism vouchers

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Speaker 1: and some of the other different initiatives that they've got

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Speaker 1: running are going to help, But is it really going

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Speaker 1: to help? Daniel?

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Speaker 2: Look, the reality is I think there's two cases of

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Speaker 2: COVID today in how These queen Plans, where a few

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Speaker 2: cops away from If how These Queensland is called a

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Speaker 2: hot we will lose our last flight coming in to

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Speaker 2: Ulara airport at the Rock, and that will mean essentially

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Speaker 2: tourism will grind to absolute halt for that part of

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Speaker 2: Central Australia, and certainly we're seeing a significant reduction and

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Speaker 2: visitation at the moment. And certainly the feedback I'm getting

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Speaker 2: from my members is forward bookings are almost non existent.

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Speaker 1: Is that right?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, And certainly one cavet to that, dokadie and accidentally

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Speaker 2: take the Minister's point around the territory vouchers. You know,

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Speaker 2: there are some operators who do very well out of

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Speaker 2: the vouchers, and you know they are still seeing bookings

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Speaker 2: through the voucher program. But look, that's nothing in comparison

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Speaker 2: to the markets that we would normally see at this time.

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Speaker 2: Albeit it's still very much our low season. It's something,

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Speaker 2: but it's certainly not to where we need it to

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Speaker 2: be to have our breads get to the other side.

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Speaker 1: And Daniel, you and I have spoken on so many

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Speaker 1: occasions about just how tough some of those operators are doing. Then,

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Speaker 1: as you've just pointed out, you know, at the likes

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Speaker 1: of all LaRue at this point in time, you have

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Speaker 1: still got those flights coming from Southeast Queensland. But with

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Speaker 1: this new traffic light system, I think a lot of

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Speaker 1: us are wondering when we do reach I think it

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Speaker 1: comes into place November twenty three, when we get to

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Speaker 1: that point and the rest of the nation starts opening

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Speaker 1: up and we're going by this traffic light system, whether

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Speaker 1: we're going to be able to have anyone traveling into

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Speaker 1: the territory.

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Speaker 2: There are certainly real doubts from the industry that we're

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Speaker 2: going to see visitation over this period. In fact, I

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Speaker 2: have multiple operators sharing with me their concerns that they

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Speaker 2: may see almost zero visitation over December and January. I

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Speaker 2: guess ultimately the other are variable is if COVID comes

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Speaker 2: into the territory over that period, there is always the

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Speaker 2: specter of a lockdown for us as well, and which

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Speaker 2: will of course grind visitation down to zero. So it's

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Speaker 2: not a positive time for the industry. We don't see

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Speaker 2: a lot of optimism. And of course there's a tsunami

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Speaker 2: at the back of this issue to Katie, which is

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Speaker 2: the fact that our industry is shedding staff. And I

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Speaker 2: had one of our biggest businesses here in Central Australia,

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Speaker 2: one of our biggest tour operators saying to me that

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Speaker 2: they have dropped down. This is a five million dollar

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Speaker 2: business down to just less than ten staff. So the

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Speaker 2: ability to then rebound quickly after we start reopening is

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Speaker 2: going to be near on impossible for our sector, and

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Speaker 2: so that's going to be the tsunami that comes after

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Speaker 2: this process. Once we see demand rebound, we're not going

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Speaker 2: to have the staff and the ability to supply that demand.

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Speaker 1: Daniel, it is such a tough time for you. And

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Speaker 1: I know that you are such an optimistic person. You're

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Speaker 1: a glass half full kind of bloke, but gee, it

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Speaker 1: must be tough at the moment. I mean, what is

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Speaker 1: your message for the government.

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Speaker 2: Oh, look, I think ultimately there's two things we are

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Speaker 2: You know, we do appreciate the great work governments have

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Speaker 2: been doing at all levels to keep us safe. And

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Speaker 2: as we've talked about, there are three ICU beds here

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Speaker 2: in our springs. We understand that the why the government's

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Speaker 2: wanting to undertake a cautious approach, but the reality is

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Speaker 2: we need to if we continue down that line, that

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Speaker 2: a government has to deal with the collateral damage, and

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Speaker 2: that damage is the tourism, events and hospitality sectors which

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Speaker 2: will get smashed as a result of no fault of

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Speaker 2: the business owners themselves. So as much support as we

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Speaker 2: possibly can through survival payments, support to get rebound. As

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Speaker 2: I said to you last week, the New South Wales

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Speaker 2: other than to announced a half a billion dollar support

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Speaker 2: package to allow the industry to rebound. I've had heard

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Speaker 2: no discussions of such a strategy here in the Northern Territory.

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Speaker 2: We need to be planning for that now, not in

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Speaker 2: the in the next few months. And workforce. The workforce

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Speaker 2: issue is something we need to be working on now,

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Speaker 2: not in March April next year when we're facing shortfalls

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Speaker 2: and stuff.

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Speaker 1: Daniel Rochford, I always appreciate your time. Thank you very

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Speaker 1: much for having a chat to us again this week,

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Speaker 1: and no doubt we'll talk again very soon.

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Speaker 2: Thanks Katie, thank you,