No workers = no guests
A GRANITE Belt backpacker hostel owner says they are struggling to fill beds and generate an income with their primary guests of agricultural workers almost wiped out as a result of the region’s labour shortage crisis.
Penny and Ben Potter have operated the Summit Backpackers Hostel for four years and said their business was “thriving” before Covid.
Since the international borders closed last year, Mrs Potter said the agricultural labour shortage in the region had decimated her business.
“It’s obviously been very difficult because they are the main workforce that fill our beds. There are no new arrivals, many have gone back home and we can’t get any new backpackers here,” she said.
Mrs Potter said the hostel was only “just scraping through” with the significantly reduced demand.
“Normally we have 10 to 20 people calling each day trying to get a bed at the hostel, these days we might have one or two calls a week,” she said.
“There’s not enough people, we’re struggling financially as well, we can’t fill beds to pay the bills.
“Things are definitely dropping off. We’re trying to provide a good experience, attract some people but it’s a matter of scraping through and surviving and trying to stay positive and hopefully in a few months it might be better. But it seems to be getting worse.”
Mrs Potter said the uncertainty surrounding when international workers would be able to live in Australia had been stressful for the family and a “real rollercoaster”.
“The bills we are going to run are huge. I keep thinking, ‘Are we going to make any money and cover our costs?’” Mrs Potter said.
She said it was frustrating the government wasn’t doing more to support farmers and those affected by the shortage.
“It should be a really important factor to ensure we have a workforce to harvest food,” she said.