Is quarantine program the lifeline for the hotel industry that was promised?
Despite mounting controversies over Australia’s hotel quarantine program, a leading tourism executive said it had provided much-needed revenue for an industry devasted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
I think our hotels have gone above and beyond in looking after this quarantine program that the Government has put in place,’’ said Michael Johnson, CEO of Tourism Accommodation Australia.
“COVID has seen hotel revenues slashed. There is now little business travel, no conference market internationally or locally, only a little leisure market and few major events.
“Hotels in Sydney are running on very low revenues particularly midweek when they are down under 10 per cent.
“On Friday and Saturday they can get up top 50 per cent with people looking to have a weekend break but the nature of COVID means more staff, with additional service levels.’’
Mr Johnson told AccomNews that hotels were “very resilient, though, and would much rather have additional costs and still be serving guests than not serving guests
At least hotels being used for quarantine are having rooms that are occupied during very tough times,’’ he said.
Returning travellers pay $3000 for 14 days of quarantine, with participating hotels receiving around $120 per day. The rest covers Government costs including catering, security and medical staff.
But the quarantine program has been embroiled in a series of controversies, with the latest seeing 366 travellers removed from the Travelodge Sydney on Wentworth Avenue after police ruled its infection control protocols for hotel quarantine were not meeting the “high standard of delivery for all travellers’’.
Darryl Soekoe, from Melbourne’s Elite Property Care, told the ABC program 7.30, that while the hotel had claimed its rooms had been deep cleaned, they obviously had not “even to a basic level, never mind a deep clean’’.
Mr Soekoe’s commercial cleaning company is being hired to disinfect workplaces with COVID positive cases.
He said there was growing concern in his industry that while there was State and Federal government guidance on how quarantine hotels and public places should be cleaned and kept free of COVID-19, there was little to no regulation.
Professor Raina Macintyre, a leading expert on of Global Biosecurity from the University of New South Wales, said it was a concern if rooms being used for hotel quarantine were not cleaned thoroughly “because the people coming into hotel quarantine are at a high risk of being infected – the bathroom is the highest risk setting”.
Grantlee Kieza OAM has won three Queensland Media Awards, two Australian Sports Commission Awards and has been a finalist for the Walkley and News Awards and for the Harry Gordon Award for Australian sports journalist of the year. In 2019 he received the Medal of the Order of Australia for his writing. You can find more of his work in our AccomNews & Resort News print magazines.
He has written 22 acclaimed books, including bestsellers Hudson Fysh, The Kelly Hunters, Lawson, Banks, Macquarie, Banjo, Mrs Kelly, Monash, Sons of the Southern Cross and Bert Hinkler.
