1
00:00:00,440 --> 00:00:02,760
Speaker 1: We know that we've seen the many tourists in the

2
00:00:02,800 --> 00:00:06,120
Speaker 1: Northern territory. You know, we've still seen plenty of tourists

3
00:00:06,120 --> 00:00:08,760
Speaker 1: in the Northern Territory over recent months. But data from

4
00:00:08,760 --> 00:00:12,560
Speaker 1: Tourism Research Australia has been released and the National Visitor

5
00:00:12,680 --> 00:00:15,319
Speaker 1: Survey results for the twelve months leading up to June

6
00:00:15,360 --> 00:00:19,000
Speaker 1: have shown that overnight stays in key outback regions have

7
00:00:19,200 --> 00:00:20,480
Speaker 1: fallen dramatically.

8
00:00:21,239 --> 00:00:23,000
Speaker 2: Joining me in this studio this morning.

9
00:00:22,920 --> 00:00:25,480
Speaker 1: To talk about this, but also to talk more about

10
00:00:25,560 --> 00:00:28,040
Speaker 1: how those tourism vouchers are going and how things are

11
00:00:28,040 --> 00:00:30,800
Speaker 1: going more generally in the top end. It is Tourism

12
00:00:30,920 --> 00:00:33,800
Speaker 1: top Ends general manager. Let me make sure I've got

13
00:00:33,800 --> 00:00:34,640
Speaker 1: that microphone on.

14
00:00:34,920 --> 00:00:36,480
Speaker 2: Sam Bennett, good morning.

15
00:00:36,200 --> 00:00:37,640
Speaker 3: To you, min In Katie.

16
00:00:37,720 --> 00:00:39,720
Speaker 2: Lovely to have you in the studio. Thanks so much

17
00:00:39,720 --> 00:00:40,919
Speaker 2: for your time. Thank you.

18
00:00:41,159 --> 00:00:44,920
Speaker 1: Now, looking at these these numbers that have just come out,

19
00:00:45,040 --> 00:00:47,680
Speaker 1: it's saying that the number of overnight stays in Darwin

20
00:00:48,760 --> 00:00:52,560
Speaker 1: have have dropped by two hundred and thirty one thousand nights.

21
00:00:53,159 --> 00:00:55,680
Speaker 2: How are things going from your perspective.

22
00:00:56,640 --> 00:01:00,000
Speaker 4: Look, the tourism industry is doing a little bit tough,

23
00:01:00,040 --> 00:01:03,320
Speaker 4: farther than it has more than we anticipated or expected,

24
00:01:03,840 --> 00:01:06,840
Speaker 4: but there's lots of factors about that. So it is

25
00:01:07,000 --> 00:01:12,240
Speaker 4: very much around cost of living. You know, budgets in

26
00:01:12,319 --> 00:01:16,000
Speaker 4: households are decreasing. There's a lot less.

27
00:01:15,880 --> 00:01:17,640
Speaker 3: Disposable income and set.

28
00:01:17,720 --> 00:01:21,040
Speaker 4: Therefore people stop doing things and focus more on paying

29
00:01:21,040 --> 00:01:25,520
Speaker 4: their rent and their electricity and their grocery bills. When

30
00:01:25,560 --> 00:01:28,280
Speaker 4: they are traveling. They are traveling, but they are staying

31
00:01:28,319 --> 00:01:33,360
Speaker 4: for shorter periods, and we do. We are seeing the

32
00:01:33,400 --> 00:01:35,759
Speaker 4: same amount of people through our door in the visit

33
00:01:35,800 --> 00:01:39,360
Speaker 4: of Information Center, but they are spending. They are spending

34
00:01:39,360 --> 00:01:42,800
Speaker 4: the same amount of money. It's costing more to do things.

35
00:01:43,040 --> 00:01:46,240
Speaker 4: It's the cost of doing business that's impacting those two

36
00:01:46,760 --> 00:01:50,840
Speaker 4: coming together right now. We're paying more for our rents

37
00:01:50,840 --> 00:01:55,400
Speaker 4: in our businesses, especially in the CBD area. We're paying

38
00:01:55,440 --> 00:01:58,760
Speaker 4: more for our insurance by far if we can get

39
00:01:58,840 --> 00:02:02,400
Speaker 4: insured at all in the North part of Australia, and

40
00:02:02,720 --> 00:02:06,760
Speaker 4: we're also we've got we're paying more in wages. People

41
00:02:06,960 --> 00:02:08,839
Speaker 4: only want to work thirty eight hour weeks. I don't

42
00:02:08,840 --> 00:02:11,720
Speaker 4: want to work a forty five hour week anymore. So

43
00:02:11,760 --> 00:02:14,320
Speaker 4: there's lots of things that are contributing to this, but

44
00:02:14,360 --> 00:02:17,040
Speaker 4: it is mostly around that cost of living pressure, and

45
00:02:17,080 --> 00:02:18,880
Speaker 4: you think it like when you talk cost of living,

46
00:02:18,919 --> 00:02:21,000
Speaker 4: you often talk about like your groceries, you know, the

47
00:02:21,000 --> 00:02:23,280
Speaker 4: cost of petrol, you've rent all that kind of thing.

48
00:02:23,320 --> 00:02:26,080
Speaker 4: But then you know the services that you're going to

49
00:02:26,440 --> 00:02:29,079
Speaker 4: that you ordinarily might have paid fifty bucks for, you're

50
00:02:29,080 --> 00:02:32,800
Speaker 4: now paying you know, a substantial amount more in some cases.

51
00:02:33,080 --> 00:02:35,440
Speaker 4: And you can understand why because for a lot of

52
00:02:35,480 --> 00:02:37,520
Speaker 4: those businesses, the cost of being.

53
00:02:37,360 --> 00:02:40,760
Speaker 1: Able to operate is increasing for various different reasons.

54
00:02:40,800 --> 00:02:42,720
Speaker 2: So the onflow is enormous.

55
00:02:43,040 --> 00:02:44,360
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's exactly right.

56
00:02:44,520 --> 00:02:47,280
Speaker 4: So where we used to see them stay for five days,

57
00:02:47,320 --> 00:02:50,359
Speaker 4: we're seeing them stay for three days. They're not adding

58
00:02:50,400 --> 00:02:53,080
Speaker 4: on to their business travelers much. They're coming doing what

59
00:02:53,120 --> 00:02:57,760
Speaker 4: they need to do, and they're going. There is also

60
00:02:59,000 --> 00:03:02,280
Speaker 4: a decrease in the amount of product being booked because

61
00:03:02,280 --> 00:03:05,560
Speaker 4: it's costing more to book it. So rather than doing

62
00:03:05,639 --> 00:03:10,239
Speaker 4: all three attractions in the city, crosaus Cove are fds.

63
00:03:10,280 --> 00:03:13,720
Speaker 4: You know, they'll do one or they'll do two, but

64
00:03:13,760 --> 00:03:17,000
Speaker 4: they won't do three because it's costing. They've got budgets,

65
00:03:17,720 --> 00:03:20,680
Speaker 4: and so we can see that reflecting in the in

66
00:03:20,720 --> 00:03:25,160
Speaker 4: the we can see that happening for our visitation in

67
00:03:25,240 --> 00:03:29,040
Speaker 4: certain areas. I think the biggest affected is our overland

68
00:03:29,080 --> 00:03:32,440
Speaker 4: travel stuff, which is our tour guides in a mini

69
00:03:32,480 --> 00:03:37,680
Speaker 4: bars or a single vehicle going into Litchfield, really competitive space.

70
00:03:37,840 --> 00:03:39,520
Speaker 3: There's a lot of operators there.

71
00:03:40,640 --> 00:03:44,920
Speaker 4: It's price price sensitive, and there's less people doing that

72
00:03:45,000 --> 00:03:47,200
Speaker 4: because that depends on the fly and market.

73
00:03:47,840 --> 00:03:50,000
Speaker 3: The self drive will drive themselves to Litchfield.

74
00:03:50,160 --> 00:03:53,040
Speaker 1: Yeah. So I mean even on the weekend I was

75
00:03:53,360 --> 00:03:54,840
Speaker 1: you know, I was down at the wharf with the kids.

76
00:03:54,880 --> 00:03:57,360
Speaker 1: They were having a fish. There was an enormous amount

77
00:03:57,400 --> 00:03:59,720
Speaker 1: of people around. There was lots it appeared as though

78
00:03:59,720 --> 00:04:01,760
Speaker 1: there was lots of tourists. You know, there's plenty of people.

79
00:04:02,120 --> 00:04:03,360
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's exactly right.

80
00:04:03,400 --> 00:04:06,080
Speaker 1: So I do wonder what kind of impact do some

81
00:04:06,160 --> 00:04:09,640
Speaker 1: of those different events and attractions that we have in

82
00:04:09,760 --> 00:04:12,920
Speaker 1: dah And at different times have in terms of our

83
00:04:13,040 --> 00:04:15,960
Speaker 1: tourism visitation. You know, things like Base in the Grass,

84
00:04:16,279 --> 00:04:18,880
Speaker 1: things like those, you know, some of those big events

85
00:04:18,920 --> 00:04:21,200
Speaker 1: that we have here in that event tourism, Does it

86
00:04:21,279 --> 00:04:22,320
Speaker 1: have a positive impact.

87
00:04:22,600 --> 00:04:25,040
Speaker 3: Absolutely? They underpin our industry.

88
00:04:25,240 --> 00:04:29,240
Speaker 4: Now what people will visit for, That's why they'll choose

89
00:04:29,279 --> 00:04:33,919
Speaker 4: this destination. It's an expensive destination from many factors, but

90
00:04:34,000 --> 00:04:37,360
Speaker 4: they'll choose it to do a special event and then

91
00:04:37,360 --> 00:04:40,680
Speaker 4: they'll stay and spend money, so they really dopin all

92
00:04:40,720 --> 00:04:44,000
Speaker 4: of tourism and it's very important that we continue to

93
00:04:44,120 --> 00:04:47,880
Speaker 4: have those events because that's why they'll come rather than

94
00:04:47,880 --> 00:04:49,120
Speaker 4: going to Bali or Fiji.

95
00:04:49,480 --> 00:04:52,039
Speaker 1: So we spoke about, you know, that cost of living.

96
00:04:52,120 --> 00:04:54,200
Speaker 1: One area that we see the cost of living so

97
00:04:54,640 --> 00:04:56,880
Speaker 1: bloody high, and I know it's for a lot of

98
00:04:56,920 --> 00:04:58,480
Speaker 1: us it is a bit of a luxury, but it's

99
00:04:58,520 --> 00:05:01,640
Speaker 1: the cost of flights. Does that have a big impact

100
00:05:01,640 --> 00:05:03,640
Speaker 1: as well in terms of our visitation numbers?

101
00:05:04,279 --> 00:05:08,279
Speaker 4: Absolutely yes, And there's a number of factors why the

102
00:05:08,360 --> 00:05:11,520
Speaker 4: cost of flights are so high. But we we work

103
00:05:11,520 --> 00:05:14,599
Speaker 4: really closely with Far North Queensland and also Wa and

104
00:05:14,640 --> 00:05:20,039
Speaker 4: the Kimberleese and these o regional areas, and so cost

105
00:05:20,080 --> 00:05:23,479
Speaker 4: of flights to here are very expensive. There's lack of

106
00:05:24,640 --> 00:05:27,960
Speaker 4: capacity or the capacity that's available is in the middle

107
00:05:27,960 --> 00:05:29,360
Speaker 4: of the night, and people don't want to fly that

108
00:05:29,400 --> 00:05:30,360
Speaker 4: when they're on holidays.

109
00:05:30,400 --> 00:05:32,359
Speaker 1: Well, especially if you've got little kids too, which I

110
00:05:32,400 --> 00:05:34,320
Speaker 1: know a lot of people do. It becomes like it's

111
00:05:34,360 --> 00:05:36,440
Speaker 1: almost a bit of an impediment trying to you know,

112
00:05:36,560 --> 00:05:38,640
Speaker 1: catch a flight at one in the morning and you're thinking,

113
00:05:38,640 --> 00:05:40,159
Speaker 1: oh god, how am I going to wake up with

114
00:05:40,600 --> 00:05:42,839
Speaker 1: a child that's been winging and crying all night?

115
00:05:43,200 --> 00:05:43,760
Speaker 3: Absolutely.

116
00:05:43,880 --> 00:05:45,719
Speaker 4: I think the other thing is is then they also

117
00:05:45,800 --> 00:05:49,279
Speaker 4: have to include an extra day's accommodation and all of

118
00:05:49,279 --> 00:05:51,359
Speaker 4: those sort of things, because where are they going to

119
00:05:51,360 --> 00:05:54,600
Speaker 4: go at two o'clock in the morning. So yeah, those

120
00:05:55,040 --> 00:05:57,960
Speaker 4: you know, the cost of flights is hurting all of

121
00:05:58,040 --> 00:06:00,440
Speaker 4: Northern Australia, but particularly Yep.

122
00:06:01,000 --> 00:06:04,480
Speaker 1: Now are there different locations that have still been really

123
00:06:04,600 --> 00:06:05,440
Speaker 1: quite popular.

124
00:06:06,880 --> 00:06:09,160
Speaker 3: Yeah, Look, I think Leachfield is really popular.

125
00:06:09,440 --> 00:06:11,240
Speaker 4: I mean we are the gateway to some of the

126
00:06:11,279 --> 00:06:16,680
Speaker 4: great national and territory parks. Catherine is doing okay, you

127
00:06:16,720 --> 00:06:20,200
Speaker 4: know some of those nit Maluk particularly is doing really well.

128
00:06:20,200 --> 00:06:21,279
Speaker 3: It's a great product.

129
00:06:21,360 --> 00:06:25,480
Speaker 4: They're developing more walking trails there.

130
00:06:25,520 --> 00:06:26,560
Speaker 3: You know, they've got more.

131
00:06:26,440 --> 00:06:30,159
Speaker 4: Crews boats on the Gorge, so they're doing really well.

132
00:06:30,240 --> 00:06:35,640
Speaker 4: It's around those other areas that there's a bit of

133
00:06:35,680 --> 00:06:39,080
Speaker 4: a drawback. So you know, where they used to, like

134
00:06:39,120 --> 00:06:41,240
Speaker 4: I said, where they would stay three nights, they might

135
00:06:41,320 --> 00:06:44,880
Speaker 4: only do it in two yep, and there's less people

136
00:06:45,040 --> 00:06:48,560
Speaker 4: doing it touring. It's more of the drive market, and

137
00:06:49,040 --> 00:06:52,279
Speaker 4: you know people are retiring older, so the gray nomad

138
00:06:52,320 --> 00:06:54,680
Speaker 4: there's a bit of a lag there in that as well.

139
00:06:55,000 --> 00:06:57,359
Speaker 1: What about those vouchers, how are they going, you know,

140
00:06:57,520 --> 00:06:59,320
Speaker 1: to try and get us moving around and try and

141
00:06:59,320 --> 00:07:01,120
Speaker 1: get us going to do different places. Yeah.

142
00:07:01,440 --> 00:07:06,240
Speaker 4: Look, that's a fantastic way to incentivize locals to get

143
00:07:06,240 --> 00:07:09,200
Speaker 4: out and explore their backyard because it's expensive to fly here,

144
00:07:09,200 --> 00:07:12,720
Speaker 4: but it's also expensive to fly out, so it would

145
00:07:12,760 --> 00:07:17,120
Speaker 4: be really great. We're working really closely with hospitality. We're

146
00:07:17,120 --> 00:07:20,520
Speaker 4: trying to find products and package people together to do

147
00:07:20,560 --> 00:07:22,160
Speaker 4: what Territorians really want to do.

148
00:07:22,520 --> 00:07:22,760
Speaker 3: Yeah.

149
00:07:22,840 --> 00:07:27,360
Speaker 4: So yeah, we're really excited at the opportunity. Travel date

150
00:07:27,520 --> 00:07:31,120
Speaker 4: is it's open for booking now, but travel dates are

151
00:07:31,200 --> 00:07:33,520
Speaker 4: first of January to the thirty first of March.

152
00:07:34,720 --> 00:07:35,600
Speaker 3: That's because we know.

153
00:07:35,640 --> 00:07:39,560
Speaker 4: People are already doing things earlier in this like in

154
00:07:39,560 --> 00:07:42,360
Speaker 4: this part of the season in December, and we want

155
00:07:42,360 --> 00:07:45,000
Speaker 4: it to actually be a benefit for territorians. But it

156
00:07:45,040 --> 00:07:47,320
Speaker 4: does include a big chunk of those school holidays.

157
00:07:47,400 --> 00:07:47,760
Speaker 3: Yeah.

158
00:07:47,960 --> 00:07:50,080
Speaker 1: And so with have you with those vouchers, have you

159
00:07:50,160 --> 00:07:51,560
Speaker 1: seen an increase in bookings?

160
00:07:51,680 --> 00:07:57,280
Speaker 4: Absolutely yeap, especially around accommodation regional accommodation dundee yep, going

161
00:07:57,320 --> 00:07:58,000
Speaker 4: on well.

162
00:07:58,360 --> 00:08:01,080
Speaker 1: Yea, you know, even over the cru period, I was like, oh,

163
00:08:01,120 --> 00:08:03,760
Speaker 1: that's a good place to go. Absolutely, it is a

164
00:08:03,760 --> 00:08:05,800
Speaker 1: good spot to head out to and you know, and

165
00:08:05,880 --> 00:08:08,280
Speaker 1: hopefully get things moving for them out there as well.

166
00:08:08,560 --> 00:08:11,840
Speaker 1: Somebody is good when locals are visiting those local locations.

167
00:08:12,440 --> 00:08:14,600
Speaker 1: Now in terms of I mean when you look at

168
00:08:14,600 --> 00:08:17,480
Speaker 1: those numbers, for example, that you know that have been

169
00:08:17,520 --> 00:08:21,840
Speaker 1: released from Tourism Research Australia, do you use those much,

170
00:08:22,080 --> 00:08:24,880
Speaker 1: you know, for long term planning or to look at

171
00:08:25,120 --> 00:08:27,800
Speaker 1: how you might try to get things moving in different areas.

172
00:08:27,840 --> 00:08:30,560
Speaker 2: I guess we all know what the issues are. We

173
00:08:30,640 --> 00:08:31,120
Speaker 2: know that.

174
00:08:31,240 --> 00:08:33,720
Speaker 1: You know, over recent years we've had issues with crime

175
00:08:33,760 --> 00:08:34,480
Speaker 1: and continue to.

176
00:08:34,800 --> 00:08:36,640
Speaker 2: We know the cost of living is really high.

177
00:08:36,720 --> 00:08:40,079
Speaker 1: We know those flight bookings are difficult to make sometimes

178
00:08:40,080 --> 00:08:43,240
Speaker 1: for different reasons including cost. But do you use those

179
00:08:43,320 --> 00:08:45,720
Speaker 1: numbers in any way to sort of modify how you

180
00:08:45,800 --> 00:08:47,760
Speaker 1: might do things down the track or do you all

181
00:08:47,840 --> 00:08:49,000
Speaker 1: look at the local data that.

182
00:08:49,000 --> 00:08:50,440
Speaker 2: You get each and every day.

183
00:08:50,920 --> 00:08:54,000
Speaker 4: I think from tourism top ends space we mostly look

184
00:08:54,040 --> 00:08:56,560
Speaker 4: at the Northern Territory and what that data looks like

185
00:08:56,679 --> 00:08:59,240
Speaker 4: for us because that tells our story, yep, But the

186
00:08:59,320 --> 00:09:04,400
Speaker 4: tourism story, the research Australia story, tells a broader story.

187
00:09:04,440 --> 00:09:06,960
Speaker 3: And what it tells us is that's actually happening everywhere,

188
00:09:07,080 --> 00:09:08,000
Speaker 3: it's not just here.

189
00:09:08,520 --> 00:09:10,280
Speaker 4: So it kind of gives us a bit of a

190
00:09:10,320 --> 00:09:14,560
Speaker 4: guide as to you know, it does help with marketing

191
00:09:14,600 --> 00:09:17,880
Speaker 4: strategies and things like that, where's our target markets?

192
00:09:18,840 --> 00:09:20,520
Speaker 3: You know, if they don't know about us, how are

193
00:09:20,520 --> 00:09:21,400
Speaker 3: they going to visit us?

194
00:09:21,480 --> 00:09:24,679
Speaker 4: So yeah, it does guide us to some degree, but

195
00:09:24,720 --> 00:09:26,000
Speaker 4: it also gives us.

196
00:09:26,160 --> 00:09:28,280
Speaker 3: Some comfort to know that we're not in this alone.

197
00:09:28,360 --> 00:09:30,880
Speaker 3: It's all of Australia. In fact, it's all of the world.

198
00:09:31,120 --> 00:09:34,240
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, it's tough when that cost of living goes up.

199
00:09:34,280 --> 00:09:36,440
Speaker 1: I guess people do have to make some tougher decisions

200
00:09:36,440 --> 00:09:38,679
Speaker 1: about where they travel or what they decide to do,

201
00:09:38,720 --> 00:09:39,720
Speaker 1: and for what reasons.

202
00:09:40,080 --> 00:09:41,079
Speaker 3: That's exactly right.

203
00:09:41,160 --> 00:09:43,559
Speaker 4: Yeah, The very first thing that happens in a cost

204
00:09:43,559 --> 00:09:48,760
Speaker 4: of living pressure is that consumer facing thing is the retail,

205
00:09:49,120 --> 00:09:52,120
Speaker 4: the hospitality and the tourism. They're the first things that

206
00:09:52,160 --> 00:09:55,640
Speaker 4: people need to drop, you know, and.

207
00:09:55,800 --> 00:09:57,679
Speaker 1: It's a shame because it's all the stuff we want

208
00:09:57,720 --> 00:10:02,160
Speaker 1: to do, right exactly, Well, Sam Bennett tourism top ends.

209
00:10:02,200 --> 00:10:04,600
Speaker 2: General manager, lovely to speak with you this morning. Thank

210
00:10:04,640 --> 00:10:05,640
Speaker 2: you so much for your time.

211
00:10:05,800 --> 00:10:06,400
Speaker 3: Thanks Katie,