The accommodation industry would “ideally” like more economic visitors to be allowed into NZ amid the Covid-19 pandemic, but they accept it’s tough balancing economic needs with Kiwi returnees, one hotel boss says.
Les Morgan, the chief operating officer of Sudima Hotels, told 1 NEWS the business was anticipating holding onto its Government contracts, which see it operate three managed isolation and quarantine hotels, until at least the middle of next year.
Going forward, Morgan said he wanted to see if the business could work out some sort of “hybrid model” with the Government so it could bring more people in.
“What we’d ideally like, of course, is some major events, or more events like Lion King [stage production, which came to Auckland earlier this year],” he said.
Morgan said he wanted to see those economic visitors prioritised, “if possible”.
“It’s hard to prioritise those over well-meaning Kiwis who have been patient but those sorts of things do stimulate the economy, even domestically.”
Despite the long queue of Kiwis wanting to return home and having to wait for MIQ spots, Morgan cautioned against adding more accommodation facilities because “they’re very difficult to manage”.
He said the Sudima had spent millions to upgrade its systems to make it safe for people to quarantine in, and that it had taken more than a year and a lot of expertise to get to this point.
Like many in the sector, the hotel was prepared to “dig in for the long term” and was expecting some disruption to business in the years to come, Morgan said.
He said the Australian bubble pause also “really affected” Sudima’s business.
While the company was able to recover about 70 to 80 per cent of its normal business during the school holidays, it was the remaining revenue on top of that figure that led to profits, Morgan said.
Morgan said when the borders opened up again, there was a “possibility” that parts of the tourism and hospitality sector could require people to be fully vaccinated to stay in their accommodation.
“We don’t want to get to that point”, he said, opting for incentives instead.
He said a “debate” was needed closer to the time about this issue.
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