‘Bring back buffet’ push to counter lack of staff

Tourism operators are demanding the return of the self-serve buffet to ease staff shortages and drive up revenue.

Seafood buffets are back in NSW where restrictions on the self-service of food have eased.

Tourism operators struggling to find staff have launched a push to “bring back the buffet” to ease the worker shortage and help boost the bottom line.

Since the Covid-19 pandemic erupted early last year, self-serve buffets have been out of bounds for restaurants, hotels and other venues because of the risks posed by long queues and shared serving utensils.

With the vaccination rollout under way and new hygiene regimes adopted throughout the tourism and hospitality industry, operators believe it is time to re­introduce self-serve food.

Although restrictions have been eased in NSW, Tasmania and the Northern Territory, other states continued to take a cautious approach to self-serve food, to the frustration of operators.

Tourism Accommodation Australia was among those lobbying for restrictions to be relaxed so diners could once again enjoy a breakfast or seafood buffet without the need for extra staff to serve them.

“When restrictions first came in, the extra service requirement was covered by JobKeeper,” said TAA chief executive Michael Johnson.

“Now that subsidy has gone, it’s an extra cost for hotels and other venues to bear. We think with regular utensil changes and frequent wipe-downs of surfaces, the self-serve buffet can safely ­resume.”

He said the return of the conference market had increased demand for the buffet, with the self-serve lunch the quickest way to feed hordes of delegates.

Gold Coast Convention Centre general manager Adrienne Readings said some hotels would not reopen restaurants until the buffet was reinstated because it was too hard to manage labour-wise. “We’d like to think there was a road map or an idea of when it might come back,” she said.

“We haven’t seen any appetite (from government) for that to happen.”

Tourism Whitsundays’ chief executive Tash Wheeler said the buffet offered a range of benefits for members, including hotels, day cruise operators and other venue managers.

She said it was “no secret” the industry urgently needed workers to fill vacant positions so the ability to redeploy staff now required to man buffet stations would be beneficial. “This is the next piece of the puzzle in recovering and coming out of Covid.”

Association of Marine Park Tourism Operators CEO Gareth Phillips said some good conversations were being held with government about easing restrictions which had added an extra layer of complexity to cruises.

“We can’t run our buffets in the way we historically did it, so operators have come up with different ways to serve food,” Mr Phillips said.

“Some have it almost as a packed lunch system whereas others take staff from elsewhere on the ship to serve food for guests. It does add a bit more of a challenge.”

Queensland Hotels Association CEO Bernie Hogan said it seemed hypocritical for the state government to allow buffets in aged care facilities and mining camps but not in hotels or other commercial venues.

“We are hopeful of reaching a resolution on this and the issue of capacity in hotels,” said Mr Hogan. “We are still only operating at 30 to 40 per cent of capacity.”

Qantas and Virgin Australia were also keen to see the return of the self-serve buffet due to their popularity with guests in airport lounges, but were awaiting a uniform approach by states.

“We’ll look to bring back more self-serve lounge offerings when the time is right and as restrictions ease,” said a Virginspokesman.

Queensland Health confirmed meetings had recently been held with hotel operators and Clubs Queensland to discuss restrictions on capacity and self-service food.

A spokeswoman said Covid-19 could be transmitted by touching an object or surface infected by another person, which made it necessary to maintain restrictions on self-service buffets.

“The shared use of utensils or equipment for self-service and buffets which may be touched by multiple people increases the risk of spreading Covid-19,” said the spokeswoman.