The Night Time Economy in Melbourne has been growing for the last few years and is set to grow even further with the introduction of 24-hour public transport available over the weekends as of January 1st, 2016.
This is likely to have a significant effect on hospitality providers and workers around the city – with extended hours of trade and increased patronage during these extended hours, requiring an increase in staffing levels.
The Night Time Economy is defined as the production and consumption of nighttime recreational services; generally speaking these include food and beverage led experiences, retail (post 6pm), performance, cultural, sporting, leisure and gaming experiences.
Currently the Night Time Economy employs over 1 million workers nationwide. If this economy is supported and fostered, this is set to soar…where will these workers come from? In a market already struggling so much to find workers willing to undertake the unsocial hours that hospitality offers, how will we manage this? All issues that need to be addressed immediately!
Concerns over safety, lack of resources (mainly food and transport), high levels of intoxication, uncontrolled environments and the creation of hot spots around the city are other concerns that need to be addressed.
What is interesting to note is that in the last 5 years whilst the number of people visiting the Melbourne CBD in this time bracket has increased over 5%, there has been a decrease in the crime rate, a decrease on spending on alcohol, and an increase in food spend by a massive 32.8%.
Melbourne currently has a freeze on the issuing of new late night liquor licenses, which has just been extended to 2019, but this does not mean that other businesses cannot look to extend their trading hours to increase their revenue.
Whilst showing a decrease in spending on alcohol, Melbourne CBD also shows the nations largest increase in businesses operating at nighttime, with an increase of 16.2% over the past 5 years. It will be interesting to see the impact that the introduction of 24-hour public transport has to the hospitality businesses operating within the CBD.