The Scenic Hotel Group is set to place its four West Coast properties into "extended hibernation" to save local businesses who would otherwise be unable to survive, according to its managing director.
Brendan Taylor was emotional on Breakfast today, saying the decision to temporarily close four hotels in Franz Josef and Fox Glacier while waiting for the borders to reopen was "pretty devastating".
The business will go into "hibernation" for the next 12 to 18 months, with 40 to 45 staff across the properties — down from 180 prior to the pandemic — being affected.
"We've started discussions with them yesterday on what we can do in regards to, are there any other availabilities around the country?We need to leave a small team in there to look after the assets that we've got so it's all a work in progress at the moment."
Breakfast’s John Campbell spoke with residents hit hard by the absence of tourists.
Taylor said the hotel group has been attempting to communicate with the Government for the past six or seven weeks, without response, on the "plight of the West Coast, and not just about our hotels — it's also the communities at Fox and Fran".
"I've been trying to communicate with the Prime Minister, the Minister of Finance [Grant Robertson] and also the Tourism Minister [Stuart Nash] without getting a response," he said.
He said he received an acknowledgment email from the Tourism Minister five weeks after it was sent out.
Taylor also expressed disappointment at Nash's statements following his arrival on the West Coast, saying that the country "needed to get back to 70 per cent herd immunity with the vaccine" and the likelihood that Australia's borders would not be expected to reopen until next January.
"All we needed was the Australian borders to open to save us and save the West Coast. So then we looked at it from the amount of business going through the West Coast in the next eight to nine months ... So our approach was we'd rather just save the communities at this stage."
He said while the West Coast properties generated "close to $20 million worth of revenue" prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, the last financial year has seen the properties generate "just over $2 million" and "on the bottom line, we've lost $2 million".
Fox Glacier Guiding CEO Rob Jewell called it disappointing but understandable.
Taylor said "as a company, we can survive", but his "main concern" at this stage is the "local people at Franz and Fox who can't survive".
"We'd rather give all our business to them and try and get them through this period," he said.
"The reality is the locals can't pivot. They've had everything taken away from them over the years — forestry and mining. There's farming and there's tourism. That's all that's left. So for a minister to walk in there and tell everybody they've got to pivot is, to me, just irresponsible."
Tanya, a Fox Glacier School teacher’s aide, was laid off after families fled the region.
He said allowing Australian tourists into the country would make "a huge difference", saying the group "wouldn't be doing this if the Australian bubble was open".
"Everybody would be in a lot happier situation if Australia was open. We know there's business there and it's waiting to come."
SHARE ME