Voyages CEO says farewell or is it au revoir!

JAJ:Thank you for taking the time to meet with today on your penultimate day at Voyages.

You have spent the past decade as CEO and Managing Director of Voyages Hotels and Resorts and have driven the Company’s development from its Red Centre roots at Ayers Rock Resort to the diversified Eco-tourism specialist it is today.

Voyages Hotels and Resorts now consists of 23 Hotels in 17 locations throughout the Northern Territory, Tasmanian Highlands, Kimberley Region of Western Australia, Great Barrier Reef, Daintree Rainforest and Queensland Gulf Country.    

So, why leave now when the company is at its peak?  

GH:  It’s really a stage of life decision. 

After 10 years as CEO at a company like Voyages, you firstly look back at what you have achieved and then you look forward.  You ask yourself the question, can I contribute in the future to the extent I have contributed in the past?

I was CEO of an independent company with an independent board and chairman but that has all changed with GPT, our owners, internalising our management structure with theirs, which is fully understandable. 

It is a decision I fully support and firmly believe  is the right decision for GPT and Voyages to move forward into the future.

What that meant for me though was that when I looked at the challenges in the future within Voyages, it appeared more limited than I wanted.

I am turning 50 and if I am to play the CEO role, I want the opportunity to lead and be innovative and creative, because that is the style of CEO I am.  If I can’t be innovative and creative then it is not for me. 

I enjoy the numbers and operational details and I think the success of Voyages speaks for that, but I just like the innovation and creativity aspects of the business best of all

Some Voyages properties are performing well and some less so, but this is a time for getting the results right across the portfolio and it may be time for others to take over.  After ten years I want to find new horizons and challenges and have to look out side Voyages for those.

JAJ:      GPT are the owners of Voyages and I am told that they made you out pull out of a number of operations including Odyssey Tours and Safaris in the Top End and what I hear was a very exciting development Wildman River Wilderness Lodge – I am told that these were a passion of yours and yet you were told to drop them – why was that, how did you feel about that decision and was this type of scenario instrumental in your deciding to leave?

GH:       We have to always remember that GPT are our owners, funders and source of life – they are the way we all keep going.

They have also been fantastically supportive owners and invested truckloads of cash in the business which quite simply, others property developers would not have done. We have to remember that at      the end of the day they are a property company, investing in property to make a profit.  If things do not fit their template they simply do not belong within it.

These two businesses quite simply do not fit in GPT’s template for different reasons.

We dabbled in Odyssey Tours and Safaris as a reverse strategy to better understand the experiential part of the top end because then we might learn how to better develop our bricks and mortar assets. But in the Top End, assets are tightly held and we were not able to get the foothold that we wanted. So in general in terms, the reverse strategy did not work, so Odyssey did not fit. 

Wildman River Wilderness Lodge would have fitted the template and it was a great property play which I was very passionate about. But the seasonal nature of the top end gave it a higher risk profile.  When we did the feasibility it looked OK, but when we went to the construction market, the costs came out 40% above what we though they would, so it was simply not viable.  Disappointed? Yes. Is it the right decision?  Yes.

JAJ:      You are a Dubbo born country boy and is that country upbringing reflected in your passion for hotel and resorts in remote locations as that seems to be your imprimatur?

GH:       Yes it is and I was very fortunate that I fell into Voyages as the GM of Ayers Rock Resort and getting the opportunity of going back to a real county location brought home that I really enjoyed the quality of  life they provide. 

The development of the company was one where the team in Voyages loved this approach of working on properties that were not in city centres and we developed a skill in this space. 

This meant that we said to ourselves, we can do this in other places and move our people around where their skills are required.  That is how the Voyages concept grew.

I don’t want to run city hotels. I like experiential product and I want to do much more that run hotels that focus only on F&B and rooms departments etc.

JAJ:      Your philosophy is that “travel should enrich mind, body and spirit”, and you passionately believe in the principles of Responsible Tourism.  Have you always been able to deliver those principles through the properties you have managed and how have you done so?

GH:       There are some that fit better than others.  You might argue that Alice Springs Resort does not fit, but I would argue that it is the best gateway to the best landscape in Australia, so wherever we have a property, the  business is built out of the whole guest experience, including flora, fauna, aboriginal culture, geology and geography,  etc . In a way the hotel becomes secondary, a place to sleep and eat, but it takes the back seat to everything that surrounds it.  

Guests still expect the hotel to be fabulous because they are paying top dollar and we do deliver in that respect, of course.

In some cases, we have linked our touring product to the properties and the environment more directly.  In Cape Tribulation, we developed Odyssey, H20, where we put infrastructure in place to deliver the experience of taking guests from a pristine sandy beach to the reef. In other cases we have provided the opportunity and training for Aboriginal companies get into tourism and provide an authentic Aboriginal experience for our guests.,

JAJ:      What are elements of your life at Voyages that you have enjoyed most?

GH:       I have really enjoyed a number of things and without doubt my career highlight was to conceive, build and deliver Longitude 131 – it is the one major  personal milestone that I will take with me.   Another thing I have enjoyed immensely, is working with my Executive team, which has been an absolute delight and something I have looked forward daily in my time with Voyages.

The corporate social responsibility platform we  have built in Voyages is something I hope is not eroded over time.

JAJ:      What are the things of your life at Voyages that you have enjoyed least?

GH:       Increasingly as the business has got bigger and the corporate environment in Australia has become more strident and regulated, I have found the statutory compliance, risk, insurance and associated areas less and less stimulating – I understand it is necessary and by nature I am a risk averse person, but I believe that we are becoming over regulated and it is stifling our natural business creativity.

JAJ:      The hospitality sector is going through some turbulent times and we thought it would be valuable for our readers to get your thoughts about the future of the sector.

GH:       There are number of issues that concern me.  We need to address the labour pool issue in Australia.  We need to address the severe skilled staff shortage and sadly, the more skilled the bigger the shortage.    We are finding it very hard indeed to employ a range of skilled staff, from chefs through to spa technicians and that impacts on service standards and the ability for us to retain the rest of our work force because the skilled staff shortage means they have to work harder and longer and they get burnt out. 

Secondly, we need to realise what this experience is worth – whenever demand is under pressure we drop our prices and it is so hard to get it back again. When prices are low, to continue to reinvest in your  asset and achieve guest satisfaction becomes impossible.  We need to value our product appropriately.

Thirdly, access is a major issue and while I love Qantas, Australia desperately needs an open skies policy.  We get less than 1% of global tourism and that is constrained by capacity into and across Australia.

Finally, we are the biggest contributor to GDP, I think outside government we are probably the largest employer, yet we really struggle to get the attention we deserve – that may be because we are  disjointed or fragmented, but it is time this all changed.

If you look at the controversy surrounding the abolition of old growth timber logging, and the argument that lots of logging jobs will go, you should compare the number of tourism and related jobs that would  go if we cut all the beautiful trees down. Admittedly,  I am for the protection of old growth timber, but we also need to put the jobs argument into perspective. I think there are about 1700 jobs associated  with old growth logging, while tourism in Tasmania alone, creates 27,000 jobs – and yet which gets most coverage and traction?  So what do we want, we have to decide.

And this assessment does not include who runs the coffee shops, who drives the fuel to the docks for the cruise ships, who delivers the food to the hotels, who grows the veggies and so on – all directly  related to tourism but not credited to this great industry.

JAJ:      The last few years have been big years for Voyages, what were the major milestones from your perspective?

GH:       Simplistically when I took over Ayers Rock Resort, it was valued at $66m and we then sold it for $220m and now I think it is worth around $400m. So we have been able to add value to the business and expand.

We  spent $82m expanding and refurbishing Ayers Rock Resort  over an 18 month period in one burst of capital investment alone– we had a construction city at the Resort to house 260 workers – these are  the exciting things that people never see or realise – that we invest so much in our properties and communities. 

The acquisition of P&O Resorts was something we had sought for a long time and this taking place 3 years after S11 and a period of Australians staying at home, meant that the P&O islands did very well for  two or three years and they sold them for top dollar. This  then made hitting our hurdles a lot harder when Aussies started travelling off shore again., But in 5 years time everyone will say that this was the  right portfolio for us to buy.  Every asset in that portfolio fits perfectly.

JAJ:      Longitude 131, which TravelMole featured recently, was your personal vision – doesn’t it hurt just a little to be leaving that behind, that is unless you have another vision waiting in the wings?

GH:       Two questions deserve two answers!

Yes, it does hurt to be leaving the business that owns and operates Longitude 131, but I know it was my vision, I achieved it and I value that personally and always will.  It is very satisfying to know that you   are recognised for having created a unique property that is world famous. 

Do I have another personal vision,? all I will say is – Yes, of course!!!

JAJ:      You are a Board member of Indigenous Tourism Australia.  What is your vision for the indigenous nations of Australia as part of our tourism future?

GH:       I think that authentic indigenous tourism is a vital way forward to differentiate Australian tourism from its competition. 

Botswana and New Zealand are recognised for their lodges for example, and we need to think about what we want to be known for in 5 years time.

I believe that one thing Australia can offer that differentiates us is the very best authentic indigenous product in the world. 

It is more than providing an indigenous tourism product, but about providing all the infrastructure, giving the indigenous communities the skills – in Aboriginal Tourism Australia we are trying to find the key things that will achieve that. 

I would love to see Indigenous Australians become more self reliant in their tourism businesses and I believe that part of the future for the branding of Australia is that we enable visitors to go into the lands and country of  Indigenous Australians’  who can then provide  their own authentic interpretation.

JAJ:      You are a Board member of Tourism Tasmania and have been a Board Member of the Northern Territory Tourism Commission – they are both State Tourism organisations, leading Australian tourism.  Why are they and others doing so well in attracting visitors, while NSW is not doing well?

GH:       In Tassie and NT it is much easier to identify the leisure component and they are primarily leisure destinations.  They are also highly experiential destinations and all the trends show that this is what  travellers are looking for.  Also, while they are smaller STO’s they have smaller budgets. This means they just have to be  nimble at what they do!

JAJ:      Interestingly you do not have a property in NSW or Victoria for that matter – is there any reason for that?

GH:       I hope that perhaps in the next life, I might do something in VIC and NSW.  One of the challenges for NSW and VIC is that here are so many iconic locations in Australia that demand and achieve recognition now.

In time though, we will move to sub iconic locations and they will tend to be closer to the major conurbations in NSW and VIC. 

My view is that these sub iconic locations will be come more important in the future. 

Look at Emirates development in the Blue Mountains and for the above reasons, while I know the Emirates guys well and they have done a fabulous job at Al-Maha in Dubai, I think that their development in the Wolgan Valley is a brave move at this time. Like Al Maha though, I expect them to have strong success over time.

JAJ:      As the man responsible for having developed and nurtured a highly successful and extremely Australian hotel product and operation in some amazing locations and bearing in mind in the current business environment, if you had a closing message for the readers of TravelMole and the industry community, what would that message be?

GH:       I would say to TravelMole readers that I believe that the future of Australian tourism is largely predicated on the natural environment, which is continually and increasingly at risk.

We need to do something about it.

If this country does not address global warming now we will lose our sensitive environment for ever.

By 2050 if the average temperature rise is only 1%, 81% of the Great Barrier Reef will be bleached. 

If the average temperature rise is 2% 97% of the Reef will be bleached.  

At the same time if that happens, 80% of the Kakadu fresh water wetlands will be lost.

I urge us all not to take it all for granted.

Our great competitive advantage is our natural advantage and it is at very great risk and I fear that our complacency will be our downfall.

JAJ:      Thank you Grant for taking the time to speak with TravelMole, we wish you all the best in your next visionary role and we look forward with great interest to hearing where that will take you.