The tourists have flocked to Darwin, now don’t damage our friendly reputation with rudeness
ANYONE would think Tourism Australia just spent $9m on a campaign encouraging Australians to holiday in Darwin
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ANYONE would think Tourism Australia just spent $9m on a campaign encouraging Australians to holiday in Darwin.
They have in fact spent the millions on an Epic Holidays campaign urging Australians to travel further, book a longer stay and enjoy the benefits of a bigger domestic holiday.
Aussie celebrities Hamish Blake and Zoe Foster-Blake are the faces of the campaign and enjoyed a Top End trip with their two kids in March.
Tourism Australia are following their own advice with eight board members in town last week for a meeting.
There’s no shortage of personality and (female) talent among the group, including managing director Phillipa Harrison and board members Penny Fowler, News Corp Australia’s community ambassador and Herald & Weekly Times chairwoman, and Harvey Norman chief executive Katie Page, who have been enjoying all the Top End has to offer.
As well as punters following some of the best musical acts in the country, the city was also awash with convention attendees last week.
There were 500 people attending the North Australia Food Futures Conference at the Darwin Convention Centre and 600 at the Financial Counselling Australia (FCA) annual conference.
More than 200 people came to Darwin for the Northern Australia Rescue and Emergency Competition.
Now that we’ve got the people here, we need to make sure we leave a good impression so these visitors return to their cold homes singing the Territory’s praises.
It’s no secret the Territory is facing a worker shortage, particularly in the hospitality industry.
This means service may take a little longer, restaurant bookings will be a little harder to come by and locals may not be able to get what they want when they want it.
But this is a good problem to have.
It just means we all need to exercise a little patience, be kind to hospo staff and no muttering under your breathe about the “bloody tourists”.
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As Small Business Minister Paul Kirby said at Wednesday’s 2021 Hospitality NT Awards for Excellence, hospitality employers and their staff are the heart and soul of our community.
The other good problem facing the Top End last week was a strain on beer stocks.
Let’s be clear, Darwin did not run out of beer.
It was a simple case of more stock was needed so beer trucks hit the Stuart Highway to make sure pubs and clubs could meet demand.
Hospitality NT chief executive Alex Bruce said last week the first influx of people to Darwin during the long weekend when Carl Cox played almost caught venues off guard.
“The brewers are on it and there’s extra trucks on the road,” he assured punters.
“Because we’re the end of the line for some of the supply chains you can’t just go to the brewery and get more pallets.”
Lion NT sales manager Andrew Haniford said the demand for booze in Darwin had not been seen since 2012.
“We have had a couple of major music festivals which has certainly added to it,” he said.
“We can absolutely assure you we won’t run out.”
There’s also a shortage of accommodation in Darwin at the moment.
While this is another good problem to have, Airbnb hosts need to protect Darwin’s reputation and refrain from ripping off tourists or, worse, cancelling bookings only to re-list the property at four times the price.
Denise Cahill is the Head of News at the NT News
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