Australia Preparing For Summer Olympic Mania
<B> Australia Preparing For Summer Olympic Mania</B>
By Judy Jacobs
Like any city getting ready to host a major event, Sydney is frantically preparing for the 2000 Summer Olympics. Hundreds of new hotel rooms and a major airport expansion are just a few of the many improvements being made by the Australian city. The end result will be an upgraded infrastructure that will benefit business travelers well into the next millennium.
No doubt the most important development is the increase in the hotel room count. The greater Sydney area currently has more than 17,800 hotel rooms, and at least 4,100 more are under construction. Among the newest properties to open is the Westin Sydney, which began accepting guests in late August.
"The Westin Sydney is in the true heart of the business district. It is the city's most enduring landmark and blends the contemporary elegance of a modern tower with the historic Post Office building," said James Simkins, the hotel's general manager. "We expect 60 percent of our market mix to be business travelers and we'll offer a unique choice of Heritage or Tower accommodations."
Simkins also expects meetings and conventions to be an important part of the hotel's business. "We currently have many requests for large conferences, meetings and exhibitions in 2000 and a high level of interest in 2001. We have found that there will be a lot of spin-off conference business from Olympic sponsor corporations and major event companies," he added.
Meeting facilities include the Grand Ballroom in the Tower, which accommodates up to 1,000 attendees and will be the largest pillar-free function room in Sydney. The Heritage Wing in the Post Office building will include two floors of function space incorporating six meeting rooms, a boardroom and a ballroom.
Another new hotel, the Quay Grand Sydney, opened in early March on the shore of Sydney Harbor overlooking the harbor bridge and the city's Royal Botanic Gardens. The five-star property consists of one- and two-bedroom suites, each with a fully equipped kitchen and laundry facility.
"We expect about 60 percent of our business to be business travelers," said Michael McCullagh, sales and marketing manager. "Being only 60 suites, we are targeting a niche market of senior managers, managing directors, CEOs, etc."
In another part of Sydney, Accor is building a hotel complex at the Olympic village for the Games and beyond. The complex includes a 150-room, three-star Ibis and a 168-room, four-star Novotel hotel, as well as a conference center that will incorporate a 4,300-sq.-ft. ballroom and four smaller meeting rooms.
After the Olympics, the complex is expected to house corporate travelers conducting business at the nearby Australia Centre, a high-tech business park.
Meanwhile, the 119-room Pentura on Pitt late last year opened as a business hotel. It has four corporate offices, which can be booked independently or with interconnecting guest rooms.
Another hotel, which opened last year, the Medina Grand Sydney, is managed by the Down Under-based Medina Group. Seventy-five percent of the business at this property, which is composed of one-, two- and three-bedroom suites, is business travel, and small meetings and incentives also make up a share of this. Three conference rooms accommodate between 40 and 60 people each, depending on size.
While hoteliers are preparing for more guests, the Sydney's Kingford Smith International Airport is gearing up for an onslaught of passengers arriving for the Olympic Games. As the result of the A$350 million (US$228 million) redevelopment of the international terminal currently underway, there will be additional aircraft gates, expanded departure lounges, more retail areas, extra checkin counters, an expansion of the baggage system and improvements to the customs and immigration facilities.
Whereas the airport currently processes an average of 66,000 passengers through its international and domestic terminals each day, the figure is expected to double on the busiest days of the Olympic Games.
International passenger arrivals and departures are expected to rise from the current daily peak of 33,500 to 57,000. Combined international and domestic aircraft arrivals are estimated to increase from the current 860 per day to 1,117. That means they will arrive at an average of about one per minute during the airport's 17 hours of operation each day.
With the new facilities, however, the airport should be able to handle an increase in passengers both during the Olympics and beyond. At the same time Kingsford Smith is being expanded, a new rail line is being built that will connect the airport to Sydney's existing rail network. The A$800 million (US$520 million) city-airport link is expected to be completed by March 2000, with stations at both the international and domestic terminals.