Exclusive interview: Michael Johnson sets sail

A cold snap blanketed Sydney as Michael Johnson, the much-respected CEO of Accommodation Australia, prepared to spend his first week of retirement on a cruise ship with his wife, Rebekka, along the Alaskan coast.

Michael is literally sailing off into the sunset after a remarkable 50-year career that began when he was a 15-year-old apprentice diesel mechanic at the Gilbert and Roach workshop in the Sydney suburb of Homebush.

In 1980, Michael was in Queenstown, New Zealand, on a three-week holiday celebrating the end of his apprenticeship when he was offered a job washing dishes at the Travelodge overlooking Lake Wakatipu. He couldn’t believe his luck, getting paid to live in such a spectacular location, and he called his boss at the workshop in Sydney to say he was embarking on a career change. Forty-three years later, he became the inaugural CEO of the new peak hotel body, Accommodation Australia, following the merger of Tourism Accommodation Australia (TAA) and the Accommodation Association of Australia (AAA).

Michael says that after half a century of hard work, he’s looking forward to some well-deserved time off and plans to spend more time with Rebekka, “his rock” throughout his life and career.

“All my friends have retired, so it’s nice to join them,” he said. “Rebekka and I are doing some refurbishments on our home in Sydney’s Hills district, so I’m looking forward to working on that too.

“I’m one of seven boys, and five of my brothers have retired as well. They’ve been off doing interesting and exciting things for years without me, and I can join them now without all the work commitments.

“One of my brothers races his car around the country, and now at last I can go and watch. I want to be the ‘yes man.’ When my family and friends ask me if I want to join them, I can now say ‘yes.’

“The last few years have been hectic. No one was expecting a global pandemic, and that became the catalyst to drive the amalgamation of the two Australian accommodation associations. So having gone through those tough times and with the industry in great shape, I can say ‘that’s enough.’”

Michael’s astonishing career in the industry has changed dramatically over the decades of his involvement.

He spent his first four months in the business as a kitchen hand in Queenstown, then moved into the porter’s department, his first foray into customer service. He was having such a great time he didn’t see it as work. Before long, he was head porter. He learned to work behind the bar and helped with the breakfasts. He worked across the hotel in all departments, even as a receptionist when times were very sexist, and the job was only seen as being one for women over 25.

In 1984, he transferred to Sydney as duty manager at the Macleay Street Travelodge in Sydney’s Kings Cross, a very different scene to stunning Queenstown. Michael was then part of the opening team at the PARKROYAL in Parramatta in 1986 and managed the PARKROYAL at Manly during the 2000 Olympics.

In 2001, he was transferred back to Queenstown 17 years after he left, but this time he and Rebekka had four children with them, and Michael was general manager of the hotel where he started. For a while, he ran a New Zealand company called Totally Tourism that involved rafts, helicopters, planes, and jetboats. Then the Johnson family returned to Sydney as Michael took on the role of manager at the Amora Hotel and joined the board of what was then the accommodation division of the Australian Hotels Association (NSW). He ended up as its chairman.

The accommodation division was rebranded as Tourism Accommodation Australia (TAA), and Michael then joined the Pan Pacific Hotel Group in Melbourne before being involved in the redevelopment back at the PARKROYAL at Parramatta.

After four years as national and NSW head of Tourism Accommodation Australia, Michael was appointed CEO of Accommodation Australia in January last year. He said he was “absolutely humbled but excited to have the role of CEO” following the merger of Australia’s peak accommodation groups.

Michael says that despite retiring, he will still be involved in the industry in some capacity. “I have no intention of sitting at home twiddling my thumbs,” he said. “I’ll probably be on a board or two.”

He said the biggest change he had seen in 45 years in tourism was the fact that hotels had grown in vast numbers and become much more accessible for consumers.

“Hotels were predominantly prestige properties when I started in the industry, and most people had probably never been in one, whereas today they are much more popular.

“Back then, we were so antiquated with technology that you didn’t get a report on how your hotel was trading for about three months.

“It wasn’t like today where it’s very much, especially at the top end, very business-driven, very much return-on-investment driven.

“In fact, the hotels where I started in New Zealand were originally built and run by the government as a way of stimulating tourism.

“These days, it’s the norm for the average person to stay in a big hotel with their children. There were no mobile phones when I started, no computers at the front desk. When it came to international calls back then, it was very expensive and very complicated to make them from hotels. Now, a lot of hotels don’t have phones in the rooms because people can make calls – even international ones – from their own mobiles.”

He said from the industry’s perspective, the Australian hotel business was “in a good place and it continues to thrive.”

“Our investment credibility is higher than it’s ever been,” Michael said. “People are looking at hotels as a sound investment as opposed to office space given their reduced occupancies with more staff working from home.

“We are also a very resilient industry, and we can survive and bounce back when the next crisis happens – not if, but when.

“Looking back on history, we had all those events that caused great concern for our industry – the likes of 9/11, SARS, the GFC, and of course more recently COVID.

“The Australian accommodation industry bounced back each time, and I’m leaving as CEO when the industry is very, very strong.”

Note: Michael will be back in the office at AA, for a few days to sign off, on his return from his trip.

This interview was published in the new Winter Issue of AccomNews. Read it HERE

Our Winter Issue of AccomNews