From the General Manager

IAN HORNE – AHA|SA GENERAL MANAGER

Show Us Your Tick – AHA|SA Launches QR Check In Campaign

As the President has highlighted in his column, the AHA|SA has recently launched a campaign to increase community support and cooperation around QR check in at hospitality businesses.

Show Us Your Tick is an education campaign aimed at hospitality businesses and their patrons, highlighting the importance of checking in whenever visiting hospitality venues.

Customer QR check in is the single most important thing that people can do to assist South Australians to enjoy a restriction free lifestyle. Why?

Checking in to a venue provides SA Health with the assurance that contact tracers can quickly identify close contacts in the event of an outbreak, keeping South Australian’s safe, and businesses open.

The clear message to consumers is when visiting a local hotel, don’t be offended if staff ask you to show them your tick. It is our way of ensuring that we are working together to protect South Australians’ health, jobs, and businesses.

There is no doubt that South Australia has done incredibly well in our response to the pandemic, and the community has always done its best to comply with government restrictions so let’s encourage our customers to keep up the good work and make sure all patrons check in when we are out supporting their favourite venues, and let’s see the industry return to restriction free trading as soon as possible.

“Customer QR check in is the single most important thing that people can do...”

This campaign is about satisfying SAPOL that QR Scanning is strongly supported by hospitality customers, and therefore providing them with the comfort to continue to allow us to trade at 75% capacity and move to 100% capacity in the foreseeable future.

The recent interstate experience in Victoria as a result of their sudden 7-day lockdown has found that many hotels and hospitality venues were sadly lacking in their QR check in compliance, and therefore compromising the efforts in that State to trace the close contacts of those tested positive within the community. Of course, the Victorian Government also shares in the blame for failing to implement a single regulated QR scan system until last week.

Courtesy of the SA Centre for Economic Studies, we in SA know the consequences of lockdowns - the November 2020 three-day event cost the SA Hotel sector in excess of $100 million. It is estimated that the cost to the Victorian economy of their latest closure will exceed $1 Billion.

So please take the time to share campaign information with your staff and encourage them to ask patrons in a polite and positive manner if they have checked in – this approach is now the ‘norm’ in NSW and Queensland and compulsory in Victoria.

What you can do to make it absolutely easy is ensure that your venues QR code is displayed in multiple places in addition to entrances. Why not place them on every table, on bars, on the back of toilet doors, on rest room mirrors.

We can only expect to retain and improve trading conditions if we demonstrate a commitment to making QR scanning work. We really need members support to protect SA businesses and SA jobs. The Show Us Your Tick resources can be found on the AHA|SA website. The AHA|SA has distributed Show Us Your Tick posters to member hotels to display in their venues.