Backpackers return
Influx a boon for pubs and hostels but plenty more visitors welcome
EVERYONE SAID TO ME ‘GET YOURSELF UP TO DARWIN’ … I THINK
THERE’S LOTS OF PEOPLE TRYING TO COME. THERE’S BARELY A BED SO THEY’LL HAVE TO OPEN SOME MORE HOSTELS ON MITCHELL ST
CAMPERVANS, unkept hair and foreign accents are back in town as backpackers make their presence felt with accommodation rates sitting healthy across Darwin’s hostels.
While the total amount of beds has dropped from about 600 to 350 since Chilli’s closed in April, the majority of available beds are filled.
Backpacker Kieran Campbell has been at the Youth Shack on Mitchell St for nine days and said the lure of a job brought him up. He expected many other backpackers to follow.
“Everyone said to me ‘ get yourself up to Darwin’,” he said. “I think there’s lots of people trying to come.
“This place is packed out, week in week out there’s barely a bed so they’ll have to open some more hostels on Mitchell St I think.”
Youth Shack manager Andrew Innes said accommodation rates were a lot better than expected.
“We’re about 100 per cent capacity,” he said.
“It’s been probably busier than we were expecting. It was a bit slow but it started getting really busy. We’re surprised it’s sustained through August. It’s been busier and we’ve got future bookings for the next two to three weeks.”
But Mr Innes also manages Chilli’s, which is closed and is set to stay that way for the foreseeable future.
“At this stage Chilli's probably will not open until next
BACKPACKER KIERAN CAMPBELL
year, it needs to be brought up to standard for the owners to be happy to open and given the state of the market we’re not in a position to open,” he said.
But the return of backpackers was helping other sub sectors across the tourism industry.
“They have a knock-on effect to pubs and clubs, they’re a bit busier too so they’re employing backpackers,” Mr Innes said. “You have got people up here looking for work for events like V8s, there’s tradies and also fruit picking this time of year.”
Hospitality NT chief executive Alex Bruce confirmed backpackers were helping the hospitality industry but numbers were still significantly lower.
“We welcome any backpackers that have come up to the NT from non-hot spots, they are a certainly a benefit to the local hospitality industry,” he said.
“The numbers are still much lower than our typical dry season, noting there are still domestic border restrictions in place.”