THE Accommodation Association has welcomed the gradual re-opening of Australia,  including Western Australia’s February 5 re-opening, but warned the skills shortage would continue to impact most accommodation providers regardless of location.

With job vacancies in the hospitality sector set to top 100,000, and as travel continues to normalise, the Accommodation Association has warned that the skills shortage in one of Australia’s core economic sectors would continue to make life difficult for the country’s hotels, motels and other accommodation providers.

“With travel already resuming back into Queensland and with today’s announcement from Western Australia of an easing of hard border controls from 12.01am on Saturday February 5, 2022, Australia’s accommodation sector and all the businesses who rely on our members can look forward to more 'normal' patterns," Accommodation Association CEO Richard Munro said.  

"We understand that each State and Territory Government have their own frameworks for a safe resumption and ideally we would prefer to see uniformity of policy across the country, but we are also grateful that we are moving closer and closer to an Australia with uniform requirements.

“It’s important to understand, however, that regardless of the approach to State and Territory borders, there is a common core challenge for our sector and that’s the massive skills and workforce shortage that is impacting our sector and will do so for quite some time," Mr Munro said.

“The Accommodation Association is proud to have a series of innovative platforms and partnerships in place as we seek to address this however it will take time. Until then, we ask everyone supporting hotels, motels, and the dining and entertainment venues within them to be respectful and supportive of our teams who are doing the very best they can under very trying circumstances.”

The Accommodation Association’s employment pathways initiatives:

The Accommodation Association has developed a platform that has a range of services and programs to set those looking to work in the sector up for success while opening up employment pathways that meet the needs of Australia’s accommodation providers. These include: 

1. The Hub – a one-stop transformational hospitality portal to for employers, job seekers, consultants with streamlined processes, forms and tools for anyone to use so that the matching of individuals to job and career opportunities is even faster and easier. It will also provide a unified job board for the sector.
2. The Gappa – this is a gap year experience for anyone that wants to work anywhere in the country for a year.
3. Train2Earn – the association's hugely successful direct training program which provides a short, intensive three-day immersion training with a job interview at the end. This is already tracking at a 94 percent employment outcome.

The Accommodation Association's PaTH Business Placement Partnerships programs also provide all jobseekers who complete training with a guaranteed four-week live and practical internship in metro and regional venues nationally. 

"These programs have an 80 percent employment success rate and provide the core basic skills to start a career in the sector," Mr Munro said. "As part of this and in line with the sector’s commitment to creating an inclusive workforce, there are also dedicated DES programs to run in a hotel environment with a supported PaTH internship and employment support package."

ends

ONE OUT OF FIVE destinations continue to have their borders completely closed as new surges of COVID-19 impact the restart of international tourism, according to the United Nations World Toruism Organization (UNWTO).

The latest research shows that still 98 percent of all destinations have some kind of travel restrictions in place.

According to the UNWTO Travel Restrictions Report, 46 destinations (21% of all destinations worldwide) currently have their borders completely closed to tourists.

Of these, 26 destinations have had their borders completely closed since at least the end of April 2020. A further 55 (25% of all global destinations) continue to have their borders partially closed to international tourism, and 112 destinations (52% of all destinations) require international tourists to present a PCR or antigen COVID test upon arrival. 

The research also shows how destinations are opening up to vaccinated international tourists: 85 destinations (39% of all destinations worldwide) have eased restrictions for fully vaccinated international tourists, while 20 destinations (9% of all destinations worldwide) have made a full COVID-19 vaccination mandatory for entering a destination for tourism purposes.

However, just four destinations have so far lifted all COVID-19-related restrictions completely (Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic and Mexico).

UNWTO Secretary-General Zurab Pololikashvili said, “The safe easing or lifting of restrictions on travel are essential for the restart of tourism and the return of the social and economic benefits the sector offers.

“The trend towards destinations taking evidence-based approaches to restrictions reflects the evolving nature of the pandemic will also help restore confidence in travel while helping keep both tourists and tourism workers safe.”  

As in previous editions of the UNWTO Travel Restrictions Report research, this latest report shows that regional differences with regards to travel restrictions remain. Asia and the Pacific remains the region with the most restrictions in place, with 65 percent of all destinations completely closed.

In comparison, Europe is the most open global region to international tourists (7% of borders completely closed), followed by Africa (9%), the Americas (10%) and the Middle East (15%).

Mr Pololikashvili  said the ongoing challenges posed by the pandemic further emphasised the importance of national authorities ensuring that immigration procedures and requirements were provided in a timely, reliable and consistent manner across all information systems and platforms. He said this would help to maintain confidence and trust and “to further facilitate international mobility”.

www.unwto.org

ends

By Leon Gettler, Talking Business >>

OVER THE LAST 10 years, short term accommodation in hotels has been largely replaced with Airbnb. But it carries risks for owner-occupiers and landlords.

There have some short-stay accommodation incidents including fraud, injury and even fatalities. Enter SafeStay, a startup co-founded by Kiel Glass and Damian Morgan.

SafeStay is a safety inspection audit company specifically targeted towards short-term rentals. Glass and Morgan’s company addresses the problem that, across Australia, there has been no minimum standard around safety and security for short term rentals. 

Glass and Morgan put together a framework to specifically improve the level of safety and security so that guests could be sure they would be staying in accommodation that is safe and secure enough for them and their family.

“A key focus of ours is that when you book a short-term rental, that the property is going to be safe and secure for them to stay at and with what’s happened recently with Covid-19, and everyone is conscious about health and safety, we are moving forward to ensure their family and themselves are protected,” Mr Morgan told Talking Business.

SAFETY INSPECTIONS NECESSARY

This would see hosts or landlords booking a safety inspection audit on the SafeStay website.

“We would then send the host a parameter of things we look for during that inspection where they can go and make sure it is in the right form and then we physically go out and inspect the property,” Mr Glass said.

“We do a safety audit inspection check which covers off safety, security and cleanliness. That’s from things such as smoke alarms, carbon monoxide alarms, trip hazards, broken glass, cords through window cables and general security relevant in other sectors.”

Mr Glass said this work was extensive as there were about 140,000 short term accommodation sites around Australia, driven by Airbnb, so Glass and Morgan were setting their goals quite high.

“We are trying to work with governing bodies around the country on a state and federal level to try and get these minimum standards approved across the industry,” Mr Glass said.

The standards are exactly the same as those used in long-term accommodation.

SAFETY AND PROFITABILITY

Mr Glass said he believed the SafeStay service would actually increase the value of the property.

“We’ve got surveys and studies to suggest that if you do have a safety audit inspection that is focused around safety, security and cleanliness, people will pay more for that,” he said.

“That’s a win-win for both aspects of guests and hosts alike. So if you can position yourself as being a leader and wanting to improve the overall standards, you will be rewarded by being to ask for more money, but also, less vacancy.

“This is a true conversation that’s going to be coming out of the other side of this pandemic and it’s going to be a main focus, so why not get yourself ahead of the rest and have a unique selling proposition to really make sure you stand out from the crowd?”

Mr Glass said this type of safety regime would become critical once Australia moved beyond the pandemic with its high vaccination rates.

“Once everybody gets out of their isolation and these restrictions drop on a state level, everybody is going to be itching to get out,” Mr Glass said.

“That’s going to be the new holiday routine of Australians. It’s to stay local, stay domestic and that will be the annual getaway for every family.”

This will see short term accommodation becoming the new normal. It will need safety, security and cleanliness audits. 

www.leongettler.com

Hear the complete interview and catch up with other topical business news on Leon Gettler’s Talking Business podcast, released every Friday at www.acast.com/talkingbusiness.

https://play.acast.com/s/talkingbusiness/talking-business41-interview-with-kiel-glass-and-damian-morg

TODAY'S release of the Reimagining the Visitor Economy expert panel report provides a thorough outline of the challenges and opportunities ahead for Australia’s tourism industry, according to the Australian Tourism Export Council (ATEC).

ATEC managing director Peter Shelley welcomed the report and congratulated the expert panel, led by chair Martin Ferguson AM, as a "comprehensive review encapsulating Australian tourism’s position as it emerges from the COVID pandemic and enters a new world of international travel". 

“We are pleased to see the report has comprehensively covered off on the major issues affecting our industry as well as some of the challenges the industry was already facing before the pandemic,” Mr Shelley said. 

“Issues such as the significant deficit in our workforce, which will be critical to the success of tourism’s recovery, have been highlighted as a major focus for government’s nationally and the need to build the pathway to success from marketing to air capacity, visas, renewed product offering and building business capability.”

Mr Shelley said ATEC was strongly supportive of the recommendation to place Australia's indigenous heritage at the centre of the tourism industry. 

“Now is an important time for our industry and governments, working collaboratively, to look at opportunities to build the tourism industry of the future and many of the recommendations outlined in the report have highlighted ways we can do this from greater digital capacity, a stronger focus on value over volume, better data collection and promoting our nature and cultural offerings.

“It is refreshing to see recommendations to have the industry directly involved in helping to drive outcomes and ATEC is looking forward to working through the strategy both in the consultation stage and as a future contributor to industry collaboration processes.

“The crucial link between driving demand, distribution and conversion will be essential in ensuring the success of the strategy and our international tourism restart."

www.tourismdrivesgrowth.com.au

ends