Federal Group to reopen Tassie casinos within weeks
Federal Hotels says it will reopen gaming rooms in Tasmania in less than 14 days.
The announcement comes as Tasmania exits stage two restrictions, with pubs and restaurants now be able to host 80 people.
The closure in March of the Tasmanian gambling giant’s venues saw 1500 people lose their jobs.
“We've been waiting for this for some time and it's good to get businesses open and good to get our people back and working again," company spokesman Daniel Hanna told the ABC.
"Naturally we're looking to scale up because we're not quite sure what demand will look like in a post-COVID world, but it certainly is good news for our business."
The group will begin a staged return to business from June 26, including "practices around social distancing".
"There will be a very big investment in cleaning and hygiene with all of our surfaces and with staff," Hanna said.
"I think customers and locals moving forward are looking for that, they want to come out and enjoy hospitality environments again but they want to feel safe, they want to make sure that businesses have put some investment into thinking about those things."
But Federal’s "tourism-focused” businesses will remain shut until the borders are reopened.
"I think it would be good to have a date, that's certainly when a lot of our tourism businesses would be looking to reopen again is as soon as the borders are open and we've got flights coming in and out of Hobart and Launceston," Hanna said.
"At the moment we're working towards that mid to late July timeframe and it will be really nice to have a confirmed date so that we can open up bookings and we can be there as an option when people from interstate who have been craving a Tasmanian holiday are able to book one."
Sheridan Randall, 18th June 2020
