VENUE FEATURE: CROWNE PLAZA
Tasmania’s entire hospitality industry has taken a beating in the last 18 months – but none more so than the accommodation sector. Yet despite the significant financial blow most venues have endured due to lack of visitor numbers, if the attitude of one inner city operator is to go by, optimism of a swift bounce back is high. For a new accommodation venue in the heart of Hobart’s CBD, the Covid-19 pandemic hit at the worst possible time for the Crowne Plaza. Initially set to open on March 20 last year – the weekend Tasmania first shut its borders to the rest of the country as premier Peter Gutwein declared a state of emergency – Crowne Plaza general manager Linda Collis instead found herself standing down all but half a dozen of her workforce. It took another six to eight weeks before Collis could bring staff back, with the hotel officially opening in July. As the state emerged from hibernation late last year into the early part of 2021, the popularity of the 235-room venue began to show. Then the second wave of border lockouts hit, including the major markets of Victoria and NSW, and again Collis was forced to weather the storm.
“When we first did our market segmentation, we had probably 25 to 30 per cent of our business projected to be international,” Collis said. “Then the majority of our domestic business, which we’re expecting to be conference group business, was coming from New South Wales and Victoria. “That absolutely took its toll. We’ve certainly been able to build up some business from Western Australia, South Australia and Queensland, but they weren’t our traditional markets. “Some of ourbusinesswe have got, both corporate business and leisure business, is only because the other states have shut. “When the New Zealand direct flights were happening we did start seeing business pretty much instantaneously, but of course that stopped too. “Talking numbers, the impact in a month would be 5000 to 6500 room nights. If you look at average rates in Hobart, and even if we said it was $200, imagine losing five to six and a half thousand. “Most months it would be a million dollars plus lost in revenue.” Even as Tasmania emerged from its first lockdown, locals weren’t flocking to hotels in their home state.
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