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Speaker 1: Now joining me on the line right now is the

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Speaker 1: CEO of Tourism Central Australia, Daniel Rochburg.

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Speaker 2: Good morning, Daniel, Good morning Katie. Good morning tea listeners.

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Speaker 1: Daniel. We just heard from the Minister for Major Events

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Speaker 1: about the government's stance on the AFL game in Alice.

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Speaker 1: How important is the AFL game to the Alice Springs economy.

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Speaker 2: It's absolutely important for two main reasons, Katie. Obviously, the

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Speaker 2: impact positive impact of the game it has in terms

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Speaker 2: of visitation to the town is really critical. But it's

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Speaker 2: also the morale boost that it brings to our community.

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Speaker 2: But I think certainly the other big worry is that

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Speaker 2: if this game is lost, we will not only see

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Speaker 2: that loss of visitation, but also if it's lost because

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Speaker 2: it's cited from a safety issue, then that will get

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Speaker 2: national media exposure and that will be catastrophic. You will

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Speaker 2: just reinforce the that already that existing tsunami of national

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Speaker 2: negative media about our town and our brand.

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Speaker 1: Well, and the hard thing is is that you can

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Speaker 1: actually understand why the Alice Springstown Councils made the decision

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Speaker 1: about the Central Australian Football League in terms of you know,

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Speaker 1: people coming from various different locations, them saying that they

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Speaker 1: just need a bit of a stop gap for this year,

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Speaker 1: and that they are really concerned about, you know, just

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Speaker 1: the issues that Alice Springs has been facing all throughout

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Speaker 1: the year longer than that. You know, you and I

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Speaker 1: have been speaking about this for such a long period

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Speaker 1: of time, so I can understand why the Allice Springstown

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Speaker 1: Council is concerned. But then, you know, to be in

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Speaker 1: a situation where the AFL game the GWS Giants may

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Speaker 1: not take on the Demons because the Central Australian Football

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Speaker 1: League games aren't going ahead, I'm quite perplexed by this

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Speaker 1: whole situation.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, putting two very separate situations together here, Katie. You know,

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Speaker 2: the council has made what in my opinion, a prudent

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Speaker 2: decision to make that reset for this year to just

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Speaker 2: you know, it's just one mechanism council can do to

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Speaker 2: help support the community. But this separate issue, this game,

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Speaker 2: the Round sixteen match, is an agreement between the Northern

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Speaker 2: Territory Government and the AFL, and you know, as the

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Speaker 2: Minister for Major Events, you know that comes under Minister

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Speaker 2: Kirby's jurisdiction, and you know, he's obviously just said on

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Speaker 2: your program he's going to hopefully get active, and that's

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Speaker 2: what we need our minister to do, get active and

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Speaker 2: make sure this game is kept.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, what did you make of his comments? You know,

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Speaker 1: he'd sort of said that he hadn't been contacted directly,

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Speaker 1: but you know that the Sports Minister had. It sounds

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Speaker 1: like it's another debarkle.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, Well, this issue is it's an issue with between

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Speaker 2: the AFL and the Northern Territory government. You know, that's

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Speaker 2: the that's the contractual situation. So you know, I certainly

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Speaker 2: you know that there's clear worry that this game will

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Speaker 2: be moved, So one would hope the Northern Territory government

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Speaker 2: is moving heaven and earth to make sure that isn't

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Speaker 2: the case.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I one hundred percent agree with you. I mean

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Speaker 1: I think that you know, this is territory taxpayers dollars

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Speaker 1: that go in to these types of agreements, and the

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Speaker 1: agreement was that that game was going to happen in

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Speaker 1: Alice Springs. Now it's a disappointing scenario for everybody to

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Speaker 1: be in where some things are not able to happen

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Speaker 1: at this point in time due to the crime issue.

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Speaker 1: That we're facing well right around the Northern territory, but

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Speaker 1: for you guys in Central Australia, it is something that's

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Speaker 1: been really, really tough.

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Speaker 2: And I'll give you some real statistics Katie and being

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Speaker 2: completely transparent for the month of April. And you know,

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Speaker 2: we've just come from Pajma and I've just heard the

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Speaker 2: Minister's comments about it. But to give your listeners a

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Speaker 2: real viewpoint of how we're traveling, we are almost forty

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Speaker 2: percent down in visitation into the Alice Springs Information Center

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Speaker 2: and I spoke to the top twenty five tourism operators

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Speaker 2: in the last few days in our region. The best

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Speaker 2: I had was a fifteen percent decline, but I had

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Speaker 2: a number of operators reporting declines of over fifty percent.

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Speaker 1: But then we just had the Minister saying that they've

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Speaker 1: had some record days with Pajama. But are people not

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Speaker 1: traveling from other locations? Are they not staying? What do

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Speaker 1: you reckon? Where's the discrepancy? Do you think?

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Speaker 2: Yeah? I do not know, but what I can say

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Speaker 2: is during the course of Pajuma, and you know, I,

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Speaker 2: let's be frank, I was you know, if we didn't

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Speaker 2: have Parjuma, our situation would have been a lot worse.

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Speaker 2: You know, we're very thankful for that event, but the

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Speaker 2: reality is the last year couldn't buy a room in

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Speaker 2: Alice Springs during Pajuma two months in advance. There was

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Speaker 2: not one night over this year's event where there was

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Speaker 2: a no vacancy sign in this town.

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Speaker 3: Yeah right, you know it's there might have been record nights,

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Speaker 3: but I think you'll find that that being you know,

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Speaker 3: obviously the event was scale.

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Speaker 2: Back this year, and you know the reports I get

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Speaker 2: getting was that was not filling beds like Paja you're

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Speaker 2: normally done. So you know, at the end of the day,

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Speaker 2: you know, if we didn't have if we didn't have

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Speaker 2: that event, it would have been a lot lot worse. So,

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Speaker 2: you know, don't get me wrong. You know, this is

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Speaker 2: not a criticism of parge Bucks. I think they do

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Speaker 2: Northern Territory of Major Events do an amazing job on that.

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Speaker 2: But you know, we are in a dire situation and

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Speaker 2: you know it's getting worse, Katie, for us, I had

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Speaker 2: you know, as I said, as I was reaching out

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Speaker 2: to many of those operators, I'm hearing a significant amount

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Speaker 2: of anguish and mental health challenges. This is worse than

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Speaker 2: what we're facing during COVID. And you know, unfortunately the

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Speaker 2: streets are still not stable. Every ninety in our springs,

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Speaker 2: there are still issues and until such time we get

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Speaker 2: that stability back onto our streets, we're not able to

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Speaker 2: get on the front foot. We can turn this around.

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Speaker 2: You know, there are many great things and make great

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Speaker 2: opportunities for a region, but we need to deal with

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Speaker 2: the issue. I like to say that it's like, you know,

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Speaker 2: to put in an analogy that top enders will know

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Speaker 2: it's a light cleaning up after the cyclone when you're

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Speaker 2: still in the middle of the cyclone, and we need

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Speaker 2: to get past get on top of our issues, and

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Speaker 2: then we can really get on the offense.

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Speaker 1: Well, Daniel, I always appreciate your time. I always appreciate

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Speaker 1: your honesty. Thank you very much for having a chat

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Speaker 1: with us this morning, and we will talk to you

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Speaker 1: again very soon. Thanks Katie, thank you,