Pictured: Gordon River Cruises
“It means a lot. As with everybody, the last few years has been incredibly tough and a huge amount of hard work from the family and from the staff has gone into the business to remain viable and to think outside the square in terms of attracting the much, much more limited availability of your guests and customers. “We are a larger business in Hobart and we really rely very, very much on that sort of international and interstate visitation. “For us to really sort of push the boundaries in what we were doing and how we did things and encouraging locals, when we had none of those interstate customers, was something that we’re very proud of in achieving.” Some of the initiatives Mures embarked on during the initial stages of Tasmania’s lockdown included serving freshly caught seafood directly from its boat at the waterfront, as well as encouraging locals to dine upstairs via a variety of specials. Will says to not only emerge from the pandemic intact but to be crowned an Australian gold medallist was testament and just reward to everyone involved in the business.
“At the end of the day, essentially we are the same business in terms of being family based, with very strong values in terms of local produce. What we’ve done in the last two years and where we’ve branched out a bit more has probably changed the structure of business a little bit,” he says. “We’ve got some really good, strong key people in the business that help drive certain aspects of our family values, which really helps a lot. “The award is huge recognition for everyone involved and actually doing the background work. We’re very, very proud and happy we’ve managed to achieve it with some great people in our team. “All our staff take a huge amount out of it as well and they get that sort of nice positive feeling about the tough times, it’s all been worth it because they’re part of that that whole process.”
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Hospitality Review: April 2022
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