James Doolan: Hotel Council Strategic Director on new hotel investments in Auckland and Wellington

Australian-owned Drifter Hotel-Hostels is planning to open new branches in Auckland and Wellington, expanding on their current foothold in Christchurch. 

$22million has been invested into the project so far. 

Hotel Council Strategic Director James Doolan told Mike Hosking that we need to work on getting even more international travellers back. 

He says more capacity's needed if we want bars, shops and restaurants to be pumping. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
We do have domestically though, some good news for our
tourism sector Drift the hotel Hostels Australia, known currently in
christ Church. They're planning to open new branches in Auckland
and Wellington next year. This is a twenty two million
dollar investment in long term growth. James Dooland's the strategic
director at the Hotel Council and as well as James
Morning Mike, how are you very well? Indeed, thank you.
I've never heard of them. They are player.

Speaker 2 (00:22):
There are new and emerging brand in quite a trendy
area at the moment. It's kind of reimagining the idea
of a backpacker and a hostel. It's an awesome idea
and I think they're going places.

Speaker 1 (00:33):
Do we like backpackers?

Speaker 2 (00:35):
Oh, we like all kinds of travelers. There's plenty of
room in New Zealand. We have three point nine million
visitors to New Zealand pre COVID and we should probably
be beyond five million today, but we're not, unfortunately.

Speaker 1 (00:46):
Well exactly so where are we at with hotels? I'm
reading over the weekend. Too many in Auckland, not enough
in Queenstown. These guys are in is there a bullishness
about hotels and assets or not.

Speaker 2 (00:58):
I wouldn't call it a bullishness. We've got to look
at what this is. This is in a particular market
segment and it's a small but significant investment flash packers
or backpackers. I don't think you're suddenly going to see
lots of high end luxury hotels. For example, in Alston,
Auckland and Wellington. Operating conditions are still pretty tough right now, right.

Speaker 1 (01:18):
So do they build it and then the backpacker comes
or have they seen the backpacker and they thought, well,
we've better build a place for them to stay.

Speaker 2 (01:26):
Well now, the first thing you've got to remember is
this is not like running an airline. Accommodation is incredibly competitive,
with lots of different ways to make money, lots of
different price segments. So this particular segment we lost a
lot of backpackers as a result of COVID. YHA isn't
around anymore, and so this particular segment they've got a

(01:46):
business plan, they've got an idea to gain market share,
and good on them. This is why the accommodation industry
is a wonderful industry.

Speaker 1 (01:53):
I don't know whether this is in your wheelhouse, but
I'm also reading over the weekend the lack of I
didn't realize this, but there's a lack of capacity. I
thought we were back to capacity airlines wise. In other words,
we need more people. But does that concern the industry?

Speaker 2 (02:06):
Yeah, it does. And look, this has been something the
industry has been talking about ever since we shut the
door to international travelers, and fifty five percent of accommodation
sector revenues came from international travelers. That's why we need
to get more internationals back and air New Zealands. You know,
engine problems haven't helped. So yeah, we're an island nation.

(02:27):
We need lots of capacity if we want our city
centers and shops and bars and restaurants pump and filled
with people.

Speaker 1 (02:33):
Are all strings being pulled as far as you're concerned.

Speaker 2 (02:38):
Look, I think we could have hustled more New Zealands
since twenty nineteen. Other countries around the world did things
like waiving visa fees or even dropping their vat or GST.
New Zealand's kind of always assumed that tourism would come back,
and it will. It will come back, but it's been
slower than it might have been if we'd pulled all

(02:59):
the strings to.

Speaker 1 (03:00):
Use your tem Good on you, James. Nice to talk
to you, James Dillon. So we wish drift to all
the very best. Spain's going gangbusters on tourism. More on
that later on in the program and Sadema now the
hotel brand. I note over the weekend they say their words.

Speaker 2 (03:12):
Not mine.

Speaker 1 (03:13):
They are desperate and part of their desperation in place
like Auckland is we do not have enough events. What
we need are more event For more from the Mic
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