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Chinese investors grab NSW regional hotels
Ben Wilmot
[Image: ben_wilmot.png]
Commercial Property Editor
Sydney
Lisa Allen
[Image: lisa_allen.png]
Property & Tourism Reporter
Sydney
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The Mariners Waterfront Hotel in Batemans Bay. Source: Supplied
[b]Mainland Chinese investors are spending up big in the NSW regional areas of the south coast and Hunter Valley.[/b]
A Chinese company snapped up the Mariners Waterfront Hotel in Batemans Bay on the south coast, buying it from Frank Wolf’s listed Abacus Property Group.
The unidentified Chinese group has bought a licensed freehold hotel sporting 40 motel units and 12 poker machines, a public bar, large bistro and 24-hour hotel licence. The buyer may even further develop the prime 5393sq m waterfront site, which has business zoning.
The sale of the property at 31 Orient Street, Batemans Bay was negotiated by Andrew Jolliffe of Ray White Hotels Australia and Mike Wheatley of Knight Frank. The price was undisclosed although public records show Abacus Funds Management paid $7.05m for the property in 2005.
Further north, China’s cashed-up Sunshine Insurance Group paid about $40m to buy a Hunter Valley resort with plans to develop a $100m six-star resort and second championship golf course. The parcel included 7ha of undeveloped land.
Sunshine, China’s seventh-largest insurer, plans to build a 300-room hotel on the Chateau Elan and The Vintage Golf Club site.
The Chateau Elan Hotel in the Hunter Valley Rothbury area was developed by billionaire Don Panoz, the Ohio pharmacist who invented the nicotine patch.
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(09-10-2015, 11:43 PM)greengiraffe Wrote: Hong Kong titans betting on Australian tourism boom
Sarah-Jane Tasker
[Image: sarah_jane_tasker.png]
Reporter
Sydney
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Hong Kong investors are betting on a boom in visitor expenditure in Australia. Source: TheAustralian
[b]The brakes have been put on Australia’s mining boom as China’s powerhouse economy slows but two of Hong Kong’s wealthiest families are betting big on a tourism boom generating the next economic wave to hit Australian shores.[/b]
Asian giants Chow Tai Fook and Far East Consortium are “bullish” on Australia’s economic prospects, which they say drove their decision to partner with Echo Entertainment to develop the $3 billion Queens Wharf project in Brisbane.
Chris Hoong, managing director of Far East Consortium, one of Asia’s largest property developers, says Australia can’t just rely on mining anymore, adding that it must diversify out of that sector. He believes that one industry where Australia has potential and competitive strengths is tourism.
The tourism boom, as with the last mining boom, will be led by China as the rise of its middle class drives a rapid increase in Chinese people travelling abroad.
“We have first-hand experience in Hong Kong (of the China impact). When China opened its door allowing its citizens to travel overseas Hong Kong was a big beneficiary and we have seen tremendous growth and we know the potential of that market,” Mr Hoong says.
“When we look at Australia, we feel that looking at (tourism) numbers, it is a very exciting market.”
By 2020 outbound Chinese tourist numbers will reach 200 million, double the 100 million who left China in 2013, and tourist spend is set to triple. Australia is already benefiting from an increase in Asian holiday-makers and Chinese and Hong Kong tourists are on track to become Australia’s top tourist group in less than a year, surpassing New Zealand. A record 953,200 Chinese tourists visited Australia in the year to August, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, closing in on New Zealand’s 1.29 million.
While Australia is geographically well placed to attract Asian tourists, the issue of capacity could limit the potential upside. Mr Hoong says Australia has invested too little on hotel capacity, adding that he believes in the motto “if you build it they will come”.
“Macau is a good example of this. Before the American operators came in there was only one casino operator and when the new licences were being sought everyone thought there was no way they were going to fill the capacity,” he says.
“If you look at the growth there in the last 10 years, in the early stage of the development there was a lot of capacity and that supply drew in more demand.”
Echo Entertainment chief executive Matt Bekier says the potential of Asian tourists is “quite amazing” but he agrees that the challenge is capacity.
“We are still in a honeymoon period because there is latent capacity that is now being soaked up through incremental growth,” he says.
“Chinese tourism over the last 12 months has grown by 30 per cent to 40 per cent but we can still absorb it but if this (growth) carries on for much longer we need substantial more capacity.”
The Echo chief says Australia is witnessing the “first cohorts” of the most affluent and experienced Asian travellers hitting our shores. He says behind that are much larger numbers.
Mr Bekier points to Chinese domestic tourist numbers as an example of the scale of the potential. Last week, during the annual “Golden Week” holiday in China, 650 million Chinese people travelled in their country.
“The patterns of behavioural change we see that comes with higher affluence is you start to spend more of your wallet on travel,” Mr Bekier says.
“The first trips are in China, travelling in an environment they know, then out of China to Hong Kong or Korea, then Southeast Asia and then Australia. In 20 years’ time a portion of that 650 million will travel to Australia, even if it’s only 1 per cent of that, it’s a massive long-term trend.” Patrick Tsang, chief executive of Chow Tai Fook Enterprises, a giant Chinese conglomerate controlled by Hong Kong’s wealthy Cheng family, is backing the growth of the Chinese middle class to shake off the economic fears of the Asian giant.
He says the company is so heavily invested in China that it is confident in its future growth despite concerns about a slump.
“Yes the economy is slowing down but it is still growing at a healthy pace when compared to a lot of other countries elsewhere, it was just growing at a very, very strong pace before,” he says.
Far East Consortium chairman, David Chiu, adds that while the slowdown in China’s growth is hurting businesses he says it is short-term pain as he highlights that the “Chinese middle class are coming”.
“China is slowing down … but it is no big deal. China is coming to a level of maturity. In the future if China can maintain 5 to 6 per cent growth, that is respectable.”
The two Hong Kong giants have shrugged off economic concerns in both China and Australia with their investment in the Queens Wharf project. Each has taken a 25 per cent interest in the resort development and a 50 per cent interest each in the residential development. The project will include three residential towers with about 2000 units, five world-class hotels, retail outlets and a casino.
Mr Tsang said the integrated resort model and the link with domestic partner, Echo Entertainment, gave the company the confidence to join the consortium to bid for the Queens Wharf project.
“We are confident we can also bring a certain international demand to look at those apartments,” he says.
The Chow Tai Fook chief says the aim of the integrated resort model was also to ensure that it was not just a “one trip event” for tourists. He says one aim is for tourists to get a strong sense of what is on offer in Australia and be encouraged to buy an apartment and potentially send their kids to school in Australia.
He adds that Chow Tai Fook is confident on the positive impact the increased flow of Asian visitors can have.
“If you look at the history of the (Cheng) family, we basically grew as Hong Kong developed and as China opened up,” he says.
“We understand what this emerging middle class, this pool of potential visitors that will be travelling to Australia, want and what they will be looking for.”
Hong Kong is a shining example of the economic boost tourists from mainland China can bring. In 1997 Chinese tourists into Hong Kong numbered about 3.6 million, last year it was 36 million.
Mr Chiu says there is no other country that can fuel that visitation growth and he says it is about to hit Australia. He says it will be the migration of people from the outskirts to the cities and of foreigners entering Australia that will fuel its future growth.
“I’m of the view that until Australia says no, there will be continued migrations from Asia,” he says.
“Australia has the land resource, the legal system and the capacity. If I were a politician in Australia I would see for its future that if it becomes the USA of Asia it will go a long way.”
The reporter travelled to Hong Kong as a guest of Echo Entertainment.
Hong Kong tycoon promises Echo keys to Chinese riches
DateOctober 9, 2015 - 11:45PM
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Perry Williams
Senior Reporter
David Chiu thinks he has a pretty good handle on what makes Chinese gamblers tick.
As one of Hong Kong's best connected billionaires, he socialises with many of the high rollers who have helped turn Macau from a sleepy backwater to Asia's gambling capital.
While many of China's VIP set are currently steering clear of the city state due to a corruption crackdown, Chiu argues they remain the holy grail for casino operators. The Hong Kong property tycoon reckons if any casino can hook a Chinese VIP, it will be on the road to making money.
"They are not easy customers, but they are great customers," Chiu said in an interview in Hong Kong on Thursday. "Why do I say they are great? They lose a lot of money. In pure numbers, they are good."
For the past 12 months, Chiu has been sharing his insights into the behaviour of casino whales with Sydney-based casino operator Echo Entertainment.
The Chiu family has made much of its fortune through property development with its Far East Consortium entity building a string of apartments and hotels in Australia.
And now Chiu, along with Hong Kong's wealthy Cheng family – which controls the jewellery-to-shopping mall Chow Tai Fook Enterprises conglomerate – has teamed up to help bankroll the $3 billion Queen's Wharf casino resort due to open in Brisbane in 2022.
Echo, owner of The Star in Sydney, Treasury in Brisbane and Jupiters on the Gold Coast, will operate Queen's Wharf with a 50 per cent share of the venture.
While Echo will bring expertise in running the casino side of the resort, it's relying on its Hong Kong partners to develop a string of hotels including the Ritz Carlton, Rosewood and Dorsett brands, along with Michelin star restaurants and more than 2000 residential apartments.
Connection into extensive links
Echo is also banking on Far East and Chow Tai Fook to tap their extensive links with high-value Asian gamblers as they look to generate a third of revenues at Queen's Wharf from VIP operations.
Chiu appears to be relishing the challenge of opening doors on Echo's behalf. He was known as "Tiger Boy" for being an aggressive stock trader in his 20s, and still displays a strong sense of ambition through ambitious ventures like Queen's Wharf.
"If you ask me who the richest people are in Hong Kong, Beijing or Shanghai, in theory we should know them and we obviously do," he laughs.
Chiu says attention to the finest details will often impress a VIP gambler more than private jets and super yachts.
"High rollers drop $2 million, but they are very concerned about being over charged for a coffee," Chiu said. "For the Chinese it's just as important they get a shark fin soup in a Chinese restaurant as it is a private jet turning up in Shanghai."
Like the members of many family-run business clans in Hong Kong, 61-year-old Chiu has a diverse array of corporate interests. Developing residential and commercial property clearly remains his passion, but he's open to using his business connections to expand into other sectors.
The family empire was built on movie and television interests in the 1980s and mindful of that heritage Chiu recently bid for a new Hong Kong TV licence in a consortium with Pansy Ho, daughter of Macau gaming tycoon Stanley Ho.
Macau has suffered in the last few years due to the Chinese government's crackdown on corruption, but Chiu thinks the enormous growth of the city into the world's biggest gambling hub is instructive for the Australian casino market.
Insightful tour of Macau
He recently took Echo management including chief executive Matt Bekier on a tour of the Macau strip using his contacts and connections to give the Australian operator an insight into the mechanics of an Asian-run gambling operation.
Chiu managed to gain entry for Echo into most Macau casinos. Melco Crown's casinos were off the list given they are owned by James Packer's Crown Resorts. Chiu said Crown approached Far East to become its joint venture partner as part of a rival bid on Queen's Wharf, but the Hong Kong company opted for Echo instead.
"Crown were already in Macau – in fairness Echo were not. So we bought them to Macau to meet all our friends. Of course not at Melco because Crown did not want to show us. But everyone else was happy to show us their casinos," Chiu chuckles.
He bats away talk Macau is in terminal decline, but says it was critical the Chinese government took control of rampant corruption.
"Some people are saying China is trying to run down Macau – that's not right. Of course you don't want to destroy a city," says Chiu.
"I think for President Xi Jinping the bigger picture was that corruption in China was serious for the last 10 years. And it's a tough battle for the new leadership because some of the battle was the fact that some of those guys were powerful and rich. So for him to do this crackdown is not an easy journey."
While Macau struggles to shake off its downturn, Chiu thinks that if Australia builds equivalent facilities like Queen's Wharf, it will grow its share of the casino pie.
"Echo management was able to look at how Chinese VIPs behave. But we also learnt a lot from Echo in how the mass market in Australia operates and behaves – it's a highly complementary mix. And everyone is learning from Macau. I think Crown even does it better now because of their Macau experience. And I hope with our local knowledge we can help Echo too."
Cashing in on the big bets of high rollers is central to the Queen's Wharf pitch, but luring China's burgeoning middle class to Australia will also play a big part in the ultimate success of the casino resort.
China's middle class will more than double to 600 million people by 2025 from 240 million people now, according to Chiu, with Australia at the top of the list as a destination.
He's bullish that tourism growth will continue despite China's economic slowdown.
"China's growth is slowing down. But it's no big deal, it is just getting more mature. We feel it will come back. There will be more disposable income – and one thing we do know is that the Chinese love to gamble. That will not change."
*The reporter travelled to Hong Kong as a guest of Echo Entertainment.
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Singaporeans win approval for new Melbourne CBD hotel
NaN of
[img=620x0]http://www.afr.com/content/dam/images/g/k/8/5/a/l/image.related.afrArticleLead.620x350.gk7wdc.png/1444726091681.jpg[/img]Victorian planning minister Richard Wynne approved an amended permit for the 1080-square-metre site on Little Lonsdale Street, central Melbourne.
by Larry Schlesinger
A little-known Singaporean developer has won approval to build a 478-room high-rise hotel on Little Lonsdale Street in the centre of Melbourne, after amending the original plans from a mixed-use development to a pure hotel project.
Victorian planning minister Richard Wynne approved the amended permit at the 1080-square-metre site at 399 Little Lonsdale Street, lodged by Well Smart Investment Holdings, a company run by 23-year-old Jia Ruize.
Plans submitted in September last year were for a 56-level mixed-use tower comprising 447 hotel rooms and 120 apartments. It was due to go to a full Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal hearing later this month after being referred on by the City of Melbourne.
Mr Wynne approved the amended permit after the developer removed the residential apartments from the development and turned it into a stand alone hotel.
The approved permit allows for the construction of a 199-metre tower of 56 levels with 270 three-star hotel rooms and 208 four-star hotel rooms as well as a bar and lounge, restaurant, conference facilities and gym.
Well Smart Investment Holdings acquired the site from Melbourne developer Clement Lee's Riverside Properties Group for about $15 million in May last year. Well Smart has also acquired hotel projects in Brisbane and at Sydney airport.
HOTEL SECTOR GOING FROM STRENGTH TO STRENGTH
"Melbourne's hotel industry goes from strength to strength and our high tourist numbers are keeping occupancy rates at around 90 per cent," Mr Wynne said.
But, he added, Melbourne need more hotel rooms, especially at the higher end of the market.
Mr Wynne has approved 1500 hotel rooms for the inner city since replacing Matthew Guy as Victorian planning minister last year, but has yet to grant an extension to the Halim family's permit to build a second hotel tower behind the historic Hotel Windsor.
Josh Rutman and Mark Wizel, the CBRE agents who negotiated the sale of the Little Lonsdale site, said recent approvals by Mr Wynne had given greater confidence to investors and developers that the authorities are willing to reward good tower design.
"We have been fortunate to transact over five major sites within this block in the past 24 months, with the majority of buyers being based in either Singapore, Malaysia or mainland China," Mr Rutman said.
"The appetite for these sites hasn't waned, especially given the level of ongoing demand for apartments and hotel rooms in the CBD. The City Council has also made it known [it] would like to see more hotel rooms delivered in the CBD to cater for the influx of tourists that Melbourne sees frequently during the year."
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Millionaire Sam Chong to build another five-star hotel in Brisbane
NaN of
[img=620x0]http://www.afr.com/content/dam/images/g/k/9/5/k/a/image.related.afrArticleLead.620x350.gk8t16.png/1444807113845.jpg[/img]Mining and property millionaire Sam Chong plans a $325-million five-star international hotel in Brisbane's Mary Lane.
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by Su-Lin Tan
Mining and property millionaire Sam Chong continues to stamp his mark on the Brisbane hotel scene, revealing plans for a $325-million, five-star international hotel in Mary Lane.
The eponymous Mary Lane hotel will feature 286 hotel rooms and 184 luxury apartments, as well as a fine-dining precinct, and is expected to be completed in 2018.
Mr Chong and his development management team GMP Management plan to use the project to open and activate Mary Lane.
"We will turn the hotel inside out. It won't be one of those big-entry hotels where you would go only if you have money," GMP Management development manager Ian Pert said.
"We want to open eclectic restaurants and bars in the laneway ... We don't want it to be too corporate.
"The combination of a five-star hotel, luxury residences and dining precinct is popular in cities such as Singapore, Hong Kong and New York but until now has not been seen in Australia on this scale."
The apartments and hotel will be on separate levels, with the apartments sitting atop the five-star hotel.
The rooftop, which will have an infinity pool and barbecue areas, will be used only by apartment residents. One- to three-bedroom apartments will start from $500,000 to $1.8 million. Four penthouses will also be on offer.
Woods Bagot will design the property, which will be marketed by Colliers International.
Mr Chong's company, Mary 111 Pty Ltd, will own the property, including the 400-square-metre food and beverage retail spaces, which will be leased. .
Brisbane-based Mr Chong also owns the neighbouring five-star Four Points by Sheraton Brisbane through his other company, Felicity Hotels Group.
His son Paul runs the hotel.
Malaysian-born Mr Chong, 70, who arrived in Australia in the late 1960s to study, accumulated his wealth in mining. He worked in Tasmania and Christmas Island before landing at Queensland Coal Mine Management, now Jellinbah Group.
Now he owns a quarter of the company, which runs two operating coal mines in central Queensland's Bowen Basin.
Mr Chong's wealth has slipped as commodity prices have fallen but is still on the BRW 200 Rich List, with $382 million.
Other famous Malaysian-Australians to top the BRW 200 list are TPG Telecom's David and Vicky Teoh, worth about $2.3 billion.
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Tourism breaks records thanks to low AUD
NaN of
[img=620x0]http://www.afr.com/content/dam/images/g/k/b/6/3/q/image.related.afrArticleLead.620x350.gk9jsd.png/1444979530919.jpg[/img]Anneke Brown, general manager of high-end hotel group COMO, which opened its first hotel in Australia this week. Philip Gostelow
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by Mark Ludlow
When inbound tourism operator David Armour heads to Europe next week to pitch for business he will be going with a spring in his step.
The plunge in the currency over the past 18 months into his self-described "sweet spot" of US70-75¢ will make an Australian holiday an easier sell.
The managing director of Southern World Australia – who specialises in bringing Western markets, rather than emerging Asian markets – says he will have his foreign exchange app on his phone ready at the World Travel Market fair in London to show potential customers how much cheaper an Australian holiday is now compared to two years ago.
"It's a big selling point because we're not a cheap destination. We never will be a cheap destination," Armour told AFR Weekend.
"People who want to come to Australia seriously have to think about it. It's not like doing a Bali or a "stop and flop" holiday. They have to really want to come and do it properly."
As the mining boom fizzles, the tourism industry is experiencing a resurgence just at the right time. The lower dollar is luring more international visitors and, more importantly, getting them to spend more money when they are here.
Domestic tourists who were once tempted offshore to Bail, Fiji, Thailand or Hawaii for a beach holiday are now heading back to local options such as the Gold Coast.
Armour, who has run his privately owned inbound tourism business since 1991, says business has picked up significantly in the past 12 months on the back of the weaker dollar. The spend per person for one key US client is up 38 per cent.
JUMP IN SPENDING
The latest figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics show international arrivals in Australia were 6.5 per cent higher in the 12 months to August. Last financial year, international visitors spent a record $33.4 billion – up 10 per cent – according to Tourism Research Australia.
Tourism Australia managing director John O'Sullivan says big jumps in consumer expenditure in the March and June quarter are the real bonus of the latest tourism boom.
"The key driver out of source markets is consumer confidence. What we are seeing for the first time now is our growth rate in terms of expenditure is almost double in terms of arrivals, which suggests people are spending more when they're here," says O'Sullivan on the phone from China.
"For the first time ever we've seen more than 7.2 million international visitors come to Australia in a year."
Tourism consultant Peter Hook, whose client base ranges from the Sunshine Coast in Queensland to Kakadu in the Northern Territory, says there weren't enough rooms for tourists in the capital cities of Darwin, Perth and Brisbane during the mining boom and the tourism business suffered as a result. But that pressure has now eased and new hotels that expected to cater to mining executives find they are filling up with tourists.
"You can see it in the last six months – it really has begun," Hook says.
"There is a direct correlation between the reduction in the mining boom and the regrowth of tourism. All the places that were constricted by the mining boom now have rooms available. Darwin was effectively closed to tourism for a few years because of the ridiculous prices. That has now changed. It has also changed in Perth."
HIGH-END MARKET
The luxury boutique hotel group COMO – which has only 12 hotels worldwide, including London, Bali, the Maldives and Phuket – opened its first hotel in Australia this week. COMO the Treasury in Perth will target high-end travellers and the corporate market.
It is part of a wave of hotels set to open in Australia over the next few years.
The iron ore boom may have come off the boil but there is still plenty of money in Perth from tourism and business travellers, COMO general manager Anneke Brown says.
In a bid to attract wealthy travellers, the hotel in the city's old Treasury building will offer top-end restaurants, bars and shopping experiences for guests. The entry point for its 48 rooms is $595 per night.
"Discerning high-end travellers will not stop travelling regardless of the currency, but the lower dollar does help," Brown says.
"Sydney and Melbourne are key markets for us and we are also targeting the south-east Asian feeder markets of Singapore, Hong Kong and Kuala Lumpur."
Ahead of the 30th anniversary of the Crocodile Dundee movie, which ignited America's love affair with Down Under, in the competitive world of international tourism is Australia suddenly cool again?
More competitive airfares from new operators in the Australian market have taken the country off the one-off bucket list and attracted return customers who are spending up big once they exchange their currency at the airport.
Total outbound visitors still exceed arrivals, but the rate of growth of inbound traffic in the past year is almost three times higher than outbound traffic.
CHINA'S MIDDLE CLASS
The return of traditional markets such as North America and Europe has many tourism veterans excited, but the unlimited potential of the fast-growing Chinese middle class remains the focus of many in the industry.
China now accounts for 951,000 international visitors a year, Australia's second-biggest inbound market behind New Zealand (1.2 million). The United Kingdom (670,700 a year) and the United States (580,000) are next, in figures for the 12 months to August.
China has been recording growth rates of 20 per cent a year for the past few years and is set to overtake New Zealand to become Australia's biggest market for international tourists.
Reder Wang, international travel service general manager at Shenzen CEPT, which is one of Australia's key distribution partners in China, says the lure of big open spaces, clean air and good shopping was bringing city-dwelling Chinese tourists to Australia.
The drop in the currency, which is making a trip 10 per cent cheaper than a year ago, is a bonus.
"Most outbound travellers are city dwellers. They are attracted to the clean air and good beaches. The Australian landscape is most attractive and the lifestyle is very different," says Wang, who helps co-ordinate group and individual tours of Australia.
"We are definitely trying to tell our consumers they will get to spend more because of the lower currency."
Sovereign Hill chief executive Jeremy Johnson, who runs an open-air museum and historical park in Ballarat in Victoria, recognised the potential of the Chinese market before many others. He first made a move into China in the late 1980s, on a hunch the Chinese would be interested in learning about their ancestors' involvement in the Victorian gold rush in the 19th century.
Johnson, who is also on the Victoria Tourism Industry Council board, says the hard work has paid off. One in three inbound Chinese visitors to Victoria now visit Sovereign Hill. He now has 20 Mandarin-speaking guides and an office in Shanghai.
"We do a lot of marketing in China selling the cultural connection to the Victorian goldfields. But the numbers coming out of China are huge. The outbound market was 100 million this year, 80 million last year," he says.
Developers also can't keep up with demand for hotel space in the key markets of Sydney and Melbourne. Sydney hotel tycoon Jerry Schwartz is adding two floors to his Rydges Sydney Central hotel, while the $340 million Sofitel Sydney Darling Harbour hotel is due for completion in 2017.
The Sunset Strip of the Gold Coast is also experiencing a boom, courtesy of Chinese investment. Brisbane's Queens Wharf integrated resort and casino, due to start construction in 2017, will be targeting wealthy travellers.
RESORTS NEED UPGRADE
While the lower dollar is helping bring tourists back to Australia, critics bemoan tired old resorts and ageing infrastructure, especially along the Queensland coast. They worry the quality of the products pales by comparison with the five- and six-star offerings in Asia.
Anyone who has been to some Queensland coastal resorts where the staff still appear to be wearing Ken Done-inspired uniforms – which match the lurid curtains and bedspreads – will agree.
Queensland Tourism Industry Council chief executive Daniel Gschwind says criticism of a lack of investment in tourism assets was valid.
"The [criticism was] legitimate because there was a low rate of re-investment and new investment in tourism. That's absolutely true," Gschwind says.
"But we're heading in the right direction now. Tourism is looking like a much more attractive place to invest and there's $6.5 billion in investment in hotel accommodation in Queensland over the next two and a half years. And with that comes jobs."
O'Sullivan defends the campaign slogan "There's nothing like Australia" which Tourism Australia has run since 2010, and he says it's been a success. (New Zealand's phenomenally successful "100 per cent pure" brand has been in use since the late 1990s).
Tourism Australia also runs category campaigns such as for food and wine, shopping and coastal assets to key markets, with some local variations.
"We don't believe it needs to be refreshed because it's worked for us. If you look at the numbers since the launch they have been very positive," O'Sullivan says.
He says Tourism Australia fell victim prior to 2010, chopping and changing its brand, including the doomed campaigns "Where the bloody hell are you?" and "See Australia in a different light".
"We were launching something every 18 months, two years. It doesn't allow the consumer to identify a brand. But we have become more targeted with things like food and wine, coastline aquatic and the premium side of things," he says.
The good news for tourism operators is that the best is yet to come. The lag-time of a fall in currency is normally 18 months to two years before it flows through as travellers organise their next big overseas trip.
Armour believes the future is bright and there's money to be made in tourism again.
"It's funny because when the dollar is high you have travel agents come to us and ask to get the rates down and reduce margins, and we tried to do that a lot," he says.
"But when the dollar's low – and it works in their favour – you don't hear a squeak from them."
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Packer hotel tower to expand Southbank precinct
- AAP
- OCTOBER 19, 2015 9:35AM
[b]James Packer’s Crown Melbourne is adding a luxury hotel tower to its Southbank casino precinct.[/b]
British architects Wilkinson Eyre won the contest to design the hotel, which will feature 388 rooms and a publicly accessible restaurant, lounge and garden terrace at the top of its 317-metre glass tower.
“Wilkinson Eyre have designed a beautiful and elegant building that is destined to be an important addition to the Melbourne skyline,” Mr Packer said in a statement this morning.
Crown (CWN) chief executive Rowen Craigie said the project would add 3000 jobs during construction, with 1000 permanent positions following on completion.
The proposed Queensbridge Hotel Tower is subject to planning approval, financing and the finalisation of long-form joint venture documentation between Crown and partner Schiavello Group.
The Herald Sun reports the 90-storey tower will cost $1.5 billion.
The tower would be taller than Eureka Tower in Southbank, and five metres shorter than the Q1 tower on the Gold Coast.
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Hong Kong-listed Far East Consortium’s big Australian adventure
Greg Brown
[Image: greg_brown.png]
Property Reporter
Sydney
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Far East Consortium’s Australian chief executive Craig Williams in his Melbourne office. Picture: David Geraghty. Source: News Corp Australia
[b]Hong Kong-listed developer Far East Consortium is eyeing an entry into the Sydney market while planning a national rollout of its Dorsett hotel brand.[/b]
Its Australian executive director, Craig Williams, said the company aimed to bolster its $6 billion-plus development pipeline after winning landmark projects at Brisbane’s Queens Wharf and Perth’s Elizabeth Quay in the past two years.
The group landed in Australia in 1994 and has mostly stuck to Melbourne , but Mr Williams said it would look to expand further in Australia.
“We are actively looking in Sydney, but there is nothing to announce yet,” Mr Williams said. “But what we generally like to do is apartments and a hotel together.”
Mr Williams added that it would look to grow its hotel portfolio over the next few years, with an aim to run its Dorsett hotels and retain the ownership of those properties.
The hotel brand had expanded in northern Asia and would be looking to the burgeoning Chinese tourist market.
“Dorsett is gaining a strong brand following in Asia, particularly north Asia, China, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore,” Mr Williams said.
“So we hope to bring middle-class Chinese here, but it won’t be at the expense of the Aussies.”
The first local Dorsett’s are planned for the $3bn Queens Wharf development in Brisbane as well as the West Side Place project in Melbourne.
The brand will typically cover hotels of three and four stars.
FEC has also partnered with luxury hotel brand Ritz-Carlton for its West Side Place project and its Eizabeth Quay project in Perth, bringing the US-headquartered hotel operator back to Australia after a 15-year absence.
Ultimately, Mr Williams said, the group would look to Ritz-Carlton operated hotels that it owned.
FEC has completed about $3bn worth of projects in Melbourne in the past two decades, including the multi-tower Upper West Side.
Building on its expansion into Perth, the group this year won the right to develop Brisbane’s integrated casino site at Queens Wharf in partnership with fellow Hong Kong company Chow Tai Fook and casino operator Echo Entertainment.
Mr Williams said FEC held joint-venture talks with some of Las Vegas’ casino heavyweights — including MGM Grand, Caesars Casino and Galaxy Entertainment — before deciding to partner with Echo.
“They’ve all got their sites set on Japan and the timing wasn't quite right for them, to be honest,” he said.
“We came to the conclusion that the right solution for Brisbane was Echo because they already have the existing casino, they already had the two historic buildings, and you could offer Brisbane a truly integrated solution if you teamed up with them.”
FEC will hold a quarter stake in the casino as an investment, with no plans to sell.
Mr Williams said the group had at various times considered the prospect of spinning off its Australian operations listed on the ASX, but that nothing had come of it.
He said the group at one stage held advanced merger talks with a local developer. “One of them we took very seriously, but in hindsight I’m glad we didn’t,” he said.
“We have a fairly strategic view on what we are doing and people that approached us maybe had other issues that they hoped we could solve for them by combining.”
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Packed hotels resort to pop-up container rooms
Fiona Carruthers and Larry Schlesinger
909 words
31 Oct 2015
The Australian Financial Review
AFNR
English
Boom
The lower Australian dollar is boosting tourism.
Two 20-foot shipping containers masquerading as a luxury hotel suite, including a rooftop jacuzzi and terrace, will soon be floating on Sydney harbour for two nights.
If the visuals of the mining boom were all about trucks and railway trains carting the black gold, the hotel boom is cranes, scaffolding, lavish openings - and the odd quirky pop-up suite as hoteliers get crafty about wowing their clientele.
"There's a real trend towards the thrilling and off-beat," says Stefan Cordiner, from hotel booking app HotelTonight, which has partnered with Ovolo Hotels to create the "Spontaneity Suite", a pop-up hotel room made from two shipping containers dropped into scenic locations across Australia and raising money for charity OzHarvest.
Pop-ups like the spontaneity suite - and St Jerome's in Melbourne (20 luxury safari-style tents on level three of Melbourne Central mall available through until May 2016) - are appearing as Australia enjoys its best hotel market conditions in decades, with inner city occupancy rates surging above 80 per cent and thousands of new hotel rooms in the pipeline in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Adelaide according the latest Savills Hotels Market Report.
Hotel returns are rising on the back of the tourism boom as record numbers of overseas visitors, many from Asia, take advantage of the lower Australian dollar to visit for holidays, work or to see family.
Sydney's occupancy rate hit 86 per cent in September, according to hotel market researchers STR Global, a record for that month, while the average room rate of $195 a night was second only to the September of the Sydney Olympics in 2000.
"Australia's burgeoning tourism industry has never been more important for our economy, especially for cities like Brisbane and Perth, which have experienced softening in occupancy due to the slowdown in the mining sector," said Simon McGrath, chief operating Officer at Accor Hotels Pacific, the biggest hotel operator in Australia with brands like the Pullman and Sofitel in its vast portfolio.
"Sydney and Melbourne are still the top performing markets for AccorHotels and the luxury hotel sector is seeing some of its strongest growth since 2008."
With China arrivals set to double from 100 million to 200 million by 2020, McGrath said it was "imperative we keep on top of our luxury product and continue to innovate".
Over the next two years, Accor has more than 3,000 rooms coming online in Australia, of which half are new build luxury developments like Sofitel Darling Harbour, Sofitel Adelaide and MGallery Elements of Byron Resort.
In Sydney, Singapore hotel tycoon Michael Kum is catering for the rising demand for accommodation by adding 222 rooms as part of a new 25-level tower atop the Four Points by Sheraton Sydney hotel overlooking Darling Harbour. Another hotel magnate, Jerry Schwartz is building two floors above the Rydges Sydney Central hotel, where occupancy rates have soared above 90 per cent.
Schwartz will also take ownership of the new $340 million, Accor-managed Sofitel Sydney Darling Harbour Hotel, when it's completed in 2017.
Melbourne is the other standout performer, particularly in the five-star luxury hotel segment, with occupancy at all almost 90 per cent, according to STR Global and average room rates up eight per cent over the year to date to $302 a night. Casino billionaire James Packer has been heavily promoting a new 90 storey high-rise tower at Crown Melbourne incorporating 388 hotel rooms - while still seeking approval for his proposed $2 billion Crown casino and hotel complex at Sydney's Barangaroo.
Earlier this month, a Singaporean developer won approval to build a 56-level hotel above Little Lonsdale Street in Melbourne; elsewhere in the city, construction is under way on a new Ritz-Carlton, a Four Points by Sheraton Hotel and Amalgamated Holding's QT Melbourne.
Even in Perth, where the tapering off of the mining boom has reduced demand for hotel rooms during the week, the overall occupancy rate remains above 80 per cent with average room rates still high at $198 a night.
New hotels confirmed for Perth include two DoubleTree hotels by Hilton Worldwide and a new Ritz-Carlton as part of the Elizabeth Quay project.
In Brisbane, occupancy rates at five-star hotels remain above 80 per cent despite a flood of new hotel openings before last year's G20 Summit. The city's signature hotel project is the 1100 room Ritz-Carlton planned for Echo Entertainment's $2 billion Queen's Wharf Casino project with construction to begin in 2017.
"There's a sense of optimism in Queensland, with the tourism industry telling us it's the best it's been before the GFC," Tourism and Events Queensland CEO, Leanne Coddington told AFR Weekend.
The hotel boom has also spread into Adelaide, a city starved until recently of new hotels, with half a dozen new projects under way, including a new Aloft hotel to be operated by US giant Starwood alongside new hotels by Choice, Accor and Intercontinental Hotels.
If you prefer something more quirky, head for The Frames, a recently opened resort in SA's Riverland wine growing region, featuring three architecturally designed retreats with huge spa rooms and designer pools.
Adding a touch of luxury to The Murray river, they also offer private cruises to a boutique brewery.
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Hotels seek
flexible rules
Ewin H; mi urn
Workplace editor
The hospitality industry is mounting a
push to make it easier to hire part-time
workers by offering guaranteed minimum
hours and entitlements only
available to permanent staff.
In return, employers would get more
leverage to change when their staff
work, which would give hotels and restaurants
the ability to call in part-time
staff at short notice.
The Australian Hotels Association,
which also wants Sunday and public
holiday penalty rates reduced, said its
plan would guarantee part-timers
work, access to paid leave entitlements
and superannuation, and make it
easier to secure bank loans.
Samantha Walder, the director of
human resources at the Intercontinental
Double Bay in Sydney, said the
hotel did not employ any part-time
employees among its 112 staff because
the arrangements governing their
employment were inflexible and
impractical.
'The requirement for an employer
and employee to agree upon a fixed
roster at the commencement of
employment impedes the hotel's ability
to change the days and times for an
employee's agreed hours of work in
accordance with fluctuations in the
business over different roster periods,"
she told the Fair Work Commission in a
witness statement
"Fluctuations in trading patterns
include accommodation occupancy,
dining reservations and functions and
events. By comparison, full-time and
casual employees are not restricted in
the same way with respect to being
required to set their days and starting
and finishing times at the outset of the
employment relationship."
Ms Walder, who previously worked
for the Four Seasons hotels in Sydney
and Los Angeles, said there were only
five part-time workers among the 600
award employees engaged by the Four
Seasons in Sydney.
"During my employment with the
Four Seasons Hotel Sydney, we generally
avoided employing part-time
employees covered by the award due to
the inflexibility of the part-time provision
in the award," she said.
Ms Walder said the Intercontinental
would employ part-time employees if
the commission supported the AHA
proposal.
"The hotel is particularly interested
in utilising the four week averaging
option for part-time employees and if
that provision was incorporated into
the award, we will transition some
existing casual positions to part-time
employment through natural attrition,"
she said.
Darren Brown, general manager of
the Shoreline Hotel in Tasmania said
he would covert 10 to 12 casual employees
to part-time status if the commission
backed the AHA proposal. The
large suburban pub near the Bellerive
Oval employs 28 full-time staff and 31
casuals.
Mr Brown said he needed to roster
on more workers when the North Melbourne
AFL club played at Bellerive
Oval, or one day cricket internationals
were played at the ground.
"At the time of making this statement
I am in the process of finalising
preparations for a sold out Melbourne
Cup lunch where I will need as many
employees as are available to work in
order to support trade, when many of
those employees would not ordinarily
work on a Tuesday," he said.
The Hotels Association has told the
Fair Work Commission that employee
requests to convert from casual to parttime
status were often being refused
due to the inflexible nature of current
part-time employment provisions.
The existing part-time provisions in
the hospitality award require an
employer and part-time employee to
agree on the employee's total weekly
hours of work, the specific days to be
worked, and the actual starting and finishing
times the hours will be worked.
Any time worked outside of this
arrangement is paid as overtime; and
the only way to change the arrangement
is through a written agreement
between the employer and employee.
Under the AHA proposal, backed by
the Tourism Accommodation Australia,
an employer and part-time
employee would agree on total weekly
hours, or average weekly hours over a
four week period, and the days upon
which those hours could be rostered.
An employer would be able to
change a part-time employees' roster to
accommodate week-to-week changes
in trading patterns, while guaranteeing
an employee a set number of hours
each week
The hours could be rostered across
the agreed range of days up to five days
a week.
Key points
Hotels say that current rules
make it too difficult to hire
part-time staff.
Workers would be offered
guaranteed minimum hours.
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China to help keep Australia's tourism industry outlook strong
DateNovember 2, 2015 - 2:19PM
[Image: 1433717257517.jpg]
Jamie Freed
Senior Reporter
[Image: 1446434363930.jpg]
A group of Chinese tourists take in the sights around Federation Square, Melbourne. Photo: Sunny Nyssen
China is poised to overtake New Zealand as Australia's largest market for inbound arrivals by 2019-20, with overall growth in the tourism industry expected to be robust over the next decade.
Tourism Research Australia's Tourism Forecasts 2015 says the number of foreign tourists is expected to increase by 5.9 per cent to 7.5 million this financial year, including a 15.5 per cent rise in the number of Chinese visitors.
The organisation's assistant general manager Janice Wykes said forecasts for Australia's key inbound markets were above the global growth trend over the next two years.
"Although China's economy has slowed down, growth in China, India and Malaysia (emerging markets) is expected to outpace the global average rate of growth," she said. "Similarly, the economic growth of Australia's leading Western tourism markets such as the United States, the United Kingdom and New Zealand is expected to exceed the average rate of growth forecast for advanced economies as well. Inbound tourism demand is likely to remain strong for the next few years."
The total growth rate is forecast to fall to an average annual rate of 4.1 per cent over the next decade, resulting in 10.6 million arrivals in 2024-25. By 2019-2020, the number of mainland Chinese visitors is expected to reach 1.4 million, up from 927,700 in 2014-15, overtaking New Zealand for the first time.
Total spending from the domestic and international tourism sectors is expected to reach $145.1 billion by 2024-25, up from $107.8 billion in the 2014-15 financial year. Overnight visitor spending, the key part of the industry's ambitious Tourism 2020 target, is expected to reach the bottom end of the goal range of $115 billion to $140 million by the end of this decade.
Strategy change
Minister for Tourism and International Education Richard Colbeck said tourism was already a major pillar of the economy, but the growth forecasts were encouraging.
"This government remains focused on embracing opportunities and continuing to grow our tourism sector," he said after the TRA report was released on Monday.
Margy Osmond, chief executive of industry body Tourism & Transport Forum, said a renewed economic and investment strategy was needed to ensure tourism remained one of the big waves of the future for the Australian economy.
"More tourists, staying more nights, and spending more money, means more jobs for Australians and a wealthier nation," she said. "It's an absolute no-brainer for government and industry to work together to put tourism into overdrive to take up the slack in the economy following the end of the mining boom."
TRA expects the Australian dollar will average around US70¢ to US72¢ over the next two years, with domestic tourism expected to pick up momentum as a result of the lower currency and lower fuel prices.
But overall, international tourism is expected to lead the growth for the industry, supported by a lower currency and improved economic conditions in key source markets. As a result, the inbound share of total tourism spending is expected to rise to 34 per cent by 2024-25 from 31 per cent in the last financial year.
Outbound travel stable
Tourism Australia managing director John O'Sullivan said that whilst the industry was performing strongly, the challenge was to maintain this momentum into the future.
"I think we've seen Australian tourism come of age as an industry in recent years and demonstrate itself to be a key pillar of economic growth for our country," he said.
"Whilst this is only a forecast, the outlook for our industry over the next few years certainly looks positive, particularly if the strengthening of economic conditions we've been seeing across key international markets continues and foreign exchange remains favourable."
Growth in outbound travel by Australians is expected to remain at a stable rate of around 3.3 per cent a year to 2024-25, reaching 12.8 million departures. That means Australia will still have a larger number of its citizens heading overseas than international visitors reaching our shores.
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