After a 40-year career in the hotel industry, most recently serving as CEO of Accommodation Australia, Michael Johnson, signs off in this HM exclusive.
When you are in the midst of your working life, it feels like it will go on forever. But when the end actually arrives, you look back and it all seems to have gone by in a flash.
After 40 years working in hotels, and the last five years leading the peak industry bodies for accommodation, my time has come.
At the end of July, I officially hand over the reins of Accommodation Australia to the next generation. I plan to spend more time with family and friends and enjoy life on the other side of the check-in counter.
I do so happy in the knowledge that I leave our Association – and our industry at large – in a better position than when I found them.
I took on the role of NSW and National head of Tourism Accommodation Australia in May 2019. I saw it as a way to give back to the industry which had given me so much. I had no idea what a ride it would become.
My arrival at TAA coincided with disaster. In October 2019 bushfires began tearing up and down the east coast and they lasted for months. Just as the smoke cleared, Covid-19 reared its head.
The global pandemic, and the travel bans, border closures, restrictions and fear that came with it, crippled our industry in a way we could not have imagined.
I learnt fast in those days and, to this day, I am proud of the work we did.
TAA worked tirelessly on local and national solutions. Our efforts to open up venues as soon as possible and gain extra support once we did were critical.
As most hotels sat empty and other became quarantine sites, it became abundantly clear to me that our industry needed a united voice. And out of the worst of years, came something great.
The process to merge TAA and the AAoA was slow and difficult at times. All up, it took three years, including a member’s vote, an ACCC ruling and reams of red tape. But looking back now – the effort was well worth it.
Accommodation Australia now has more than 1400-member properties – roughly 140,000 rooms – across Australia. We built a new association from scratch, we focused on putting members first, and together we led our industry back to recovery.
Every graph I look at now shows the accommodation sector trending in the right direction. There are still issues – with migration, staffing and short-term rental accommodation in particular – but there is so much to be optimistic about.
I have thoroughly enjoyed my time representing the industry and I feel humbled to have been the first CEO of Accommodation Australia.
Thank you to all of you for your support and I wish you and our association the very best for the future.
This piece was firsthttps://issuu.com/theintermediagroup/docs/hm_august_2024/24 published in the August edition of HM magazine.