This is why the Melbourne CBD is completely stuffed.
I attended a business seminar in the CBD today. It was in a major hotel in Collins Street.
It was the only function at the hotel today.
In fact it was the hotel's first function since lockdown began so many month's ago.
The hotel guest rooms are closed.
Our guest presenter had to stay elsewhere.
Our guest presenter stayed at another nearby well known hotel. He was one of just two guests for the night. This hotel cannot get enough kitchen staff and therefore there was no breakfast service this morning.
At 1:15pm today there was virtually no foot traffic in the CBD. Normally this is peak lunch hour with wall to wall people.
The few restaurant's and cafe's that are actually open are complaining they cannot get enough experienced chefs, cooks and wait staff.
The decline of the once bustling Melbourne CBD is a disaster.
The latest reponse is to provide restaurant patrons with a 30% rebate up to the value of $150 on a meal for a Monday-Thursday night. So people have to spend $500 to get $150 back. A short term sugar hit at best.
The international students are gone. International visitors, especially the high spending Chinese are gone. One in five shops in the CBD are vacant. Homelessness is not only a problem in Flinders Street and Elizabeth Street but also now a real problem in the Bourke Street Mall.
I drove to the hotel this morning and was shocked at how quickly I travelled in, I thought to myself that is not a good sign and I was right.
Premier Daniel Andrews and Lord Mayor Sally Capp need to develop a proper plan to reinvigorate the CBD quickly otherwise the current ghost town will become a wasteland.
