Keep going out, have fun - hospitality executive

Good Group Hospitality chief executive Russell Gray. PHOTO: SUPPLIED
Good Group Hospitality chief executive Russell Gray. PHOTO: SUPPLIED
A hospitality operator who runs bars in Queenstown and Australia says there is light at the end of the Omicron tunnel, but New Zealanders and the Government need to change their attitude to Covid-19.

Good Group Hospitality chief executive Russell Gray, who is also on the national board of Hospitality New Zealand, said the group operated six venues in Queenstown as well as businesses in Auckland, Sydney and Melbourne.

Changes to close contact rules across the Tasman had been a game-changer and should be implemented here, too, Mr Gray said.

The New Zealand Government has promised targeted support for the hospitality industry, but what form that will take has not been announced.

In Australia, under a more relaxed approach — people were considered close contacts only if someone they lived with had Covid — venues had been able to stay open, Mr Gray said.

Staff had caught the virus, but had recovered and business was now "pumping".

Mr Gray said he had had three shots of vaccine and had caught the Delta and Omicron variants.

He knew a small percentage of people got seriously unwell but for the vast majority it would be more of a relief to contract Covid-19 and recover, he said.

Of 80 staff at one Sydney venue, 72 had caught Omicron, but all had recovered, he said.

New Zealand should get back to work and "keep the wheels of commerce going".

"Keep going out and having fun — enjoy hospitality — because your time will come when you do have to isolate because you will get Omicron," he said.

"The rhetoric coming out of the Government and the Ministry of Health is alarmist."

Under the Red setting all businesses are allowed to operate, but hospitality businesses in Queenstown are being shut as venues are listed as locations of interest and staff are counted among close contacts who need to isolate.

Yesterday afternoon, 74 of 157 Ministry of Health locations of interest affected Queenstown and many exposure events were linked to hospitality.

Speight's Ale House Dunedin owner Mark Scully. PHOTO: GREGOR RICHARDSON
Speight's Ale House Dunedin owner Mark Scully. PHOTO: GREGOR RICHARDSON
Nineteen bars, restaurants and venues closed early this week according to one count.

Although the Government said targeted support was on the way, Queenstown Chamber of Commerce chief executive Ruth Stokes said business confidence was low.

More than 80% of businesses believed the economy was deteriorating locally and nationally, Ms Stokes said.

Finance Minister Grant Robertson said economic activity in the hospitality sector was significantly below the 2%-5% drop seen across the board.

However, details of the Government’s relief package remained a work in progress, he said.

Republic Hospitality Group chief executive Blair Impey said without a change to close contact rules staff could become stuck in long bouts of self-isolation.

At present, about 50 Queenstown staff were isolating and eight of 11 establishments in his group were closed.

The Government could subsidise affected businesses with wage subsidies and provide support for fixed costs such as insurance and rent, "or hurry up and change the rules".

He believed it was inevitable that New Zealand would move towards testing unwell people with rapid antigen tests (Rats).

Speight’s Ale House Dunedin owner Mark Scully said Queenstown was likely more vulnerable, because it was an insular community that lived together and socialised together.

But there was a similar risk in Dunedin.

It was not the number of staff an establishment lost that mattered, but which staff were forced to self-isolate; chefs and duty managers were hard to find, Mr Scully said.

If a business was forced to shut due to a lack of staff under the current rules, support should be similar to what was on offer during the lockdown in Alert Level 1, he said.

hamish.maclean@odt.co.nz

— Additional reporting Mountain Scene

 

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