With less than a couple of weeks to get ready for the Christmas holidays, many operators are struggling with a lack of staff, a housing crisis causing impediments to attracting staff, the impacts of borders reopening, a lack of information in regard to mandating vaccinated staff, how to manage a business with a COVID outbreak, and potential legal implications that will be forced on businesses.

The culmination of these factors is impacting business across Queensland, and there are no easy answers.

Come along to our first Tourism Industry Thought Leadership Forum and hear from industry leaders on what they are doing to prepare their businesses for the holiday season in a vacuum of information or solutions.

Hear insights into how they plan to deliver services and maintain client satisfaction levels, while juggling one of the toughest situations in their careers.

Sharing information and supporting each other in the countdown to the 17 December border reopening will help businesses best prepare now.

TOURISM INDUSTRY THOUGHT LEADERSHIP FORUM

RSVP: Please RSVP through the form on the website

PANELLISTS:

• Kate McCreery-Carr, General Manager Operations, Sunshine Coast Airport – will talk about the processes and procedures they are putting in place to accept visitors from NSW and Victoria, the return of domestic flights and projected increase of arrivals.
• Sue Willis, Managing Director, Niche Luxury Accommodation - will speak about how the business is planning to attract and maintain cleaning staff, along with her experience on the issues surrounding legally requiring only vaccinated staff as part of her business model.
• Mark Wilkinson, General Manager, Sofitel Noosa Pacific Resort - will talk about planning for staff shortages, how to manage visitors' expectations this Christmas, and how Sofitel sister properties in southern states are dealing with the 'new normal'.
• Brett Kapernick, Deputy CEO, Queensland Tourism Industry Council, and a Board member of the National Labour and Skills Shortage Working Group run by the Australian Government and the Australian Chamber of Commerce - will talk about the work QTIC is doing with regards to insurance costs and issues for the industry, as well as workforce retention.
• Gayle O’Brien, General Manager - Policy, Queensland Government Department of Tourism – will provide an update on the Roadmap and the ways Government is assisting industry to attract staff.
• Quentin Long, Managing Director, Australian Traveller - will let us know what he is experiencing in the tourism sector in southern states with the return to the ‘new normal’ and living with COVID.
• Rio Capurso, Locale Noosa Restaurant - will provide insights into the struggles the food and beverage sector is encountering and what they are doing to prepare themselves for the holidays.