23/03/2022
NEWS STORY
As a result of labour shortages in the hospitality industry, organisers of the forthcoming Australian Grand Prix have been force to cap attendance numbers.
With no Grand Prix since 2019, this year's event was looking set to be a record breaker, but due to the shortage of labour in the hospitality industry attendance at next month's event will be capped at 125-130 thousand.
"We expect that we're going to have one of the biggest aggregate crowds in the history of the event," said Australian Grand Prix Corporation boss, Andrew Westacott according to Speedcafe.com.
"We won't surpass the opening round numbers in 1996 of 154,000," he admitted, "but we expect to have about the second or third highest attendance on a Sunday, possibly the highest attendance on a Saturday and a Friday. Maybe that also moves into Thursday as well as we move closer to the event."
While Westacott confirmed that Saturday general admission tickets had been sold out, day allocation having been snapped up in February, Westacott warned that attendance has been capped due to a shortage of hospitality staff which means only so many people can be catered for.
"One of the things, in recent discussions with our three hospitality providers, is that we're okay at the moment," said Westacott, referring to staff numbers. "But as the (crowd) numbers are going up, normally we'd have the recruitment of the workforce completed by now, 16 to 20 days out.
"What we're finding now is the recruitment is going all the way up to the event. Hence the reason why we're capping the attendances at 125-130,000 level so that the experiences we've got are going to be first class.
"We want to make sure the service deliveries are to the world class standards expected of Formula 1 and expected by every Melburnian," he added.
"What we've learned is that there are labour shortages all over the economy, and we're doing whatever we can to try and ensure that we have enough staff," said Martin Pakula, Victorian Minister for Sport, Tourism and Major Events, "but the fact is that lack of international students, lack of skilled visa holders, it is making labour shortages across the economy something that we have to contend with.
"What I'd say to people who might be looking for some additional hours, you won't get a more exciting place to work than down here over that week.
"Labour shortages are a real issue," he admitted. "We wouldn't expect anything like what happened at the footy. But there's no doubt that it is tight."
The "footy" comment referred to the fact that Melbourne Cricket Ground boss, Stuart Fox had been forced to issue an apology after fans attending the AFL season opener endured lengthy delays for food and drinks.
"Like so many hospitality businesses and venues in Australia, the MCG is struggling with staffing shortages," said Fox. "As a result of this shortage we made the difficult decision to close selected bars and food outlets.
"We understand the frustration that this causes for members and the resulting issues of increased wait times and queuing. As a club we pride ourselves on our exceptional service. We know that last night the experience for many members did not meet this expectation."