Accommodation Association welcomes Australia’s gradual reopening

Accommodation Association welcomed the gradual reopening of Australia including West Australia on 5 February but warned the skills shortage would continue to impact most accommodation providers regardless of location.

With job vacancies in the hospitality sector set to top 100,000, and as travel continues to normalise, the Association warns that the skills shortage in one of Australia’s core economic sectors will continue to make life difficult for the country’s hotels, motels and other accommodation providers.

Accommodation Association CEO Richard Munro says: “With travel already resuming back into Queensland and with today’s announcement from West Australia of an easing of hard border controls on 5 February 2022, Australia’s Accommodation sector and all the businesses who rely on our members can look forward to more “normal” patterns. We understand that each State and Territory Government have their own frameworks for a safe resumption and ideally we would prefer to see the uniformity of policy across the country but we are also grateful that we are moving closer and closer to an Australia with uniform requirements.”

“It’s important to understand, however, that regardless of the approach to State and Territory borders, there is a common core challenge for our sector and that’s the massive skills and workforce shortage that is impacting our sector and will do so for quite some time.”

“The Accommodation Association is proud to have a series of innovative platforms and partnerships in place as we seek to address this however it will take time. Until then, we ask everyone supporting hotels, motels, and the dining and entertainment venues within them to be respectful and supportive of our teams who are doing the very best they can under very trying circumstances.”