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Speaker 1: Now we have heard this morning obviously the Northern Territory

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Speaker 1: Government and the Health Minister confirming that the vaccine passport

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Speaker 1: has indeed been lifted or dropped however you want to

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Speaker 1: put it for those hospitality venues, no doubt going to

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Speaker 1: be good news for those hospo venues. And we will

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Speaker 1: catch up with Hospitality NT CEO Alex Bruce just after

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Speaker 1: ten o'clock. But joining me on the line right now

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Speaker 1: is Tourism Central Australia CEO Daniel Rochford. Good morning to you, Daniel, Yeah.

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

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Speaker 1: Daniel. I'm not sure whether you had heard, but the

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Speaker 1: vaccine pass obviously been dropped for those licensed venues. Do

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Speaker 1: you reckon that this is going to be a good

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Speaker 1: thing down there in Central Australia? Will our tourism and

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Speaker 1: hospo venues be quite happy to hear this?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, this is great news for the industry and look

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Speaker 2: at certainly well warmly welcomed and hats off to the

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Speaker 2: great team at Hospitality MT and the run that's been

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Speaker 2: advocating for this as well, you know where we're very

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Speaker 2: keen to see some of these rules starting to retract

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Speaker 2: to support our business. As I've said before, the governments

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Speaker 2: have done a great job in keeping it safe, but

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Speaker 2: now it's over to us for the business community to

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Speaker 2: really drive hard to rebuild our economy.

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Speaker 1: Now speaking oy building well, seventy million dollars an expansion

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Speaker 1: for Lassner's hotel casino. What is this going to mean

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Speaker 1: when it comes to tourism in Central Australia.

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Speaker 2: Well, it's all happening, rain and pause. You know, just

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Speaker 2: six months ago, you know, we were going through our

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Speaker 2: darkest days with the pandemic. And to just hear this announcement,

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Speaker 2: which is a seventy million dollar announcement for the redevelopment

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Speaker 2: of the Lassida's Casino and hotel, is just a great

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Speaker 2: shot in the arm for the future of the region.

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Speaker 2: Obviously comes off the back of the recent announcement by

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Speaker 2: the Northern Territory government of a quarter of a billion

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Speaker 2: dollars worth of investment support for the National Aboriginal Art

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Speaker 2: Gallery and other projects.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, it is good news. What's it all going to

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Speaker 1: sort of look like? Does it mean a massive expansion

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Speaker 1: for that hotel and casino.

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Speaker 2: Very much so, a huge increase in rooms and some

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Speaker 2: amazing amenities throughout the facility as well. But more importantly

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Speaker 2: for the region, five hundred jobs during construction and five

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Speaker 2: hundred new jobs in operation. So this is a massive

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Speaker 2: redevelopment and a massive boost for the regional economy here

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Speaker 2: in Central Australia.

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Speaker 1: Now, how are those visitation numbers looking? Have things been

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Speaker 1: picking up a little bit? Daniel?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, very much like Katie. And it's greatly great to

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Speaker 2: see visitors. I was down at the Rock just last

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Speaker 2: late last week and that was the first time I've

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Speaker 2: actually been to Earlaru and seen visitors to the level

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Speaker 2: of what was nearly before. So it's great to see.

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Speaker 2: And here now the springs, great to see people wandering

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Speaker 2: around the town and getting out and amongst it.

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Speaker 1: Oh, that is really good to hear. And I know

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Speaker 1: that you know, the flights there hadn't sort of been

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Speaker 1: as many flights. You and I had discussed that earlier

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Speaker 1: in the year. Have those flights re resumed or you know,

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Speaker 1: are we starting to see those levels back again.

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Speaker 2: We've got as you know, I think we got down

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Speaker 2: to just two flights a week into Ularu from July

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Speaker 2: will be to twenty six flights, So that is a

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Speaker 2: massive turnaround in just a small amount of time, and

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Speaker 2: certainly the same in the case is the case here

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Speaker 2: in Alice as well. So we're starting to see flights

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Speaker 2: come on and you know, certainly with Pajama this weekend

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Speaker 2: and a variety of other events coming up, it's going

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Speaker 2: to be a good season from all reports. And let's

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Speaker 2: hope we don't hear any more letters of the Greek

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Speaker 2: alphabet or anything that might come from left field. You know,

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Speaker 2: that's what we need the most at the moment, is

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Speaker 2: just give us six months to build back the industry.

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Speaker 1: Oh yes, spot on, mate, that's fantastic. So back in

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Speaker 1: July we're going to be back to twenty six flights

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Speaker 1: going into Ularu.

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Speaker 2: Yes, yes, so, And of course just last week Quanas

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Speaker 2: had their first flight back into Ularu. Traditionally those flights

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Speaker 2: have all been Jetstar, so we're now getting Quantus Metal

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Speaker 2: back to Ularu and yeah, so that's a good news

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Speaker 2: for the Central Australian region and it comes off the

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Speaker 2: back of course, we've had just under eight million dollar

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Speaker 2: marketing campaign that we've been putting out into the domestic

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Speaker 2: market over the last few weeks and months, and that's

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Speaker 2: been well received. And hopefully we'll start to see a

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Speaker 2: huge uptake in visitation.

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Speaker 1: I'm really pleased to hear that. I know it's been

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Speaker 1: a really tough couple of years. You and I, like

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Speaker 1: I said a couple of weeks ago last week, we've

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Speaker 1: spoken on so many occasions about some of the really

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Speaker 1: dis pointing things that we've seen over the course of COVID,

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Speaker 1: particularly when it comes to tourism. So I think the

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Speaker 1: fact that things are really turning around is wonderful. And

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Speaker 1: as you've touched on, there is quite a few upcoming events,

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Speaker 1: but Pajama this weekend, Yeah.

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Speaker 2: The festival lights and yeah, all reports are looking great.

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Speaker 2: We're have sold out throughout the town. So it's a

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Speaker 2: great news. It's a great event, and it's going from

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Speaker 2: strength to strength and we're certainly looking forward to it

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Speaker 2: over the next ten days. And yeah, I think it's

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Speaker 2: certainly made as well. For the future events, we've got

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Speaker 2: a raft of different quirky events, the Beanie Festival and

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Speaker 2: Desert Mob and Desert Song later in the years, so

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Speaker 2: of course Red Cent and Nats of course later in

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Speaker 2: the year. So you know, really look out. Go on

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Speaker 2: to a website Discover Central Australia and see some of

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Speaker 2: those events that you might interest you.

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Speaker 1: Yeah for sure. Well, Daniel, lovely to talk to you

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Speaker 1: this morning, and lovely to again here's some good news

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Speaker 1: out of Central I think that you guys deserve it.

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Speaker 1: You know, it's been a tough couple of years and

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Speaker 1: I really hope that we see Central Australia and indeed

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Speaker 1: the top end all around the Northern Territory. I hope

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Speaker 1: that we start to see plenty of tourists again out

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Speaker 1: there spending money in our local economy.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, fingers Christin. Thanks for all of your support, Katie,

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Speaker 2: and yeah, here's tour hopefully were Brider twenty twenty two.

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Speaker 1: Yeah for sure, good on you, Daniel, Thanks so much

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Speaker 1: for your time this morning.