How Hospitality Bounces Back
The owner of the Shamrock Hotel in Bendigo, Ray Sharawara, says he has plenty of forward bookings through the summer months, something the hotel has not experienced for almost two years.
"The numbers are increasing every day," Mr Sharawara said. "People from Melbourne have been a godsend for regional Victoria, obviously it's a great source of people coming.
THE BIG, SPECIAL EVENTS THAT WERE ALL POSTPONED, THEY'RE ALL NOW EARMARKED TO BE BACK ON EARLY IN THE NEW YEAR AND THAT PERIOD CAN BE NOT QUITE AS BUSY (IN BENDIGO) AS A LOT OF PEOPLE GO OFF TO THE COAST OR THE MURRAY.
Despite the positivity from Victoria's opening weekend, Mr Sharawara said he still feared for the hospitality industry with the current staff shortages. "Staffing is an issue. We know it's an issue for nearly all hospitality venues," he said. "The pressure's on for fully trained staff like chefs because Australia did lose many people as they had to go back to their own countries.
Ms Scholtz said many people are worried about entering the industry after seeing the decimation the pandemic caused. "It's a hard industry as it is to get staff," she said.
"Now, there's a lot of places struggling to get staff and I think that a reason why is because there was a lot of the unknown with whether you're going to have work." "People can't commit when they don't know if they've got ongoing work."
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