Lack of hospitality staff a new blow for regions

Victoria’s tourism industry has been through the wringer, but the next looming crisis may be too much to bear for some regional hospitality operators.

Hospitality businesses in rural Victoria are feeling the heat, as a shortage of kitchen and front-of-house staff cause operators to struggle to capitalise on the rush of domestic tourism this summer.

A HOSPITALITY staff shortage could be the next crisis for Victoria’s tourism industry, which has been hit in the past 12 months by COVID-19 restrictions as well as bushfires early last year.

Domestic tourists have swarmed to regional Victoria this summer, offering a lifeline to many hospitality and tourism operators who face the prospect of another 12 months with no international guests.

However, worker shortages have meant many cafes, restaurants and bars couldn’t fully capitalise on the visitation boost.

Victoria Tourism Industry Council chief executive Felicia Mariani said kitchen and waitstaff vacancies were “looming as the next big crisis for the industry”.

“This lack of a pool of employees to actually put into businesses to meet the demand that is clearly there, in particular in regional Victoria, is incredibly problematic,” she said.

“In particular everyone is looking for cooks and chefs in restaurants and hospitality. We forget how reliant we were on 457 visas, bringing in skilled migration, backpackers and also international students.

“This isn’t even about skills. We aren’t able to find enough people to actually do the work, and as a consequence, businesses are operating on limited hours.”

Seppelt Great Western ceo Bruce Ahchow. Picture: Andy Rogers

Bruce Ahchow, of Seppelt Great Western in the Grampians, said he is working up to 90 hours a week to keep his three commercial kitchens operating.

“The state government’s very successful Visit Victoria campaign, straight on top of restrictions being lifted, was also when we were the most squeezed for staff,” Mr Ahchow said.

“Sending tourists from Melbourne is fabulous. But send some of the unemployed people as well.

“On school holidays, you ask Melbourne to go to the regions, you take all the non-Australian residents out of the market, then you take all the residents with kids out of the market and you have created a pretty difficult employment scenario.”

He said he hoped the government would do more to help regional hospitality businesses deal with worker shortages.

Ms Mariani said she was collaborating with all states’ tourism industry councils and the Tourism and Transport Forum to develop a proposal of specialised support for the tourism and events industry. She said they aimed to submit the plan to the Federal Government in two weeks.

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