City Beefs Up Hotel Supply
<I>Sydney</I> - It's a question foremost in the minds of those booking corporate travel to Australia. Will the Olympics interfere with transient business and group travel to Sydney at the turn of the century, when the city hosts the games?
With 13 hotels and a total of more than 2,800 guest rooms and apartments under construction, Sydney should be well supplied with hotel rooms for the Olympic year 2000 and beyond. Many of these hotels are in the immediate vicinity of Darling Harbor, expanding the room base for both the meetings delegates and business travelers, who can reach downtown corporate offices in a short monorail ride or by the new light rail system that is scheduled to begin operations this summer.
"Meeting and incentive groups throughout the year 2000 should not ignore Sydney as a destination, as there will be many exciting events leading up to the Olympics," said Robin Watters, area director for Hilton International in Sydney.
In keeping with an Australian trend towards building more apartment-style or "all-suite hotels," more than 25 percent of the rooms under construction in Sydney are geared toward long-stay business travelers. Most apartment properties tend to be small, ranging from about 50 to 150 rooms each.
One company specializing in this niche market, Medina Executive Apartments, will open its eighth Sydney property, the Medina on Kent, next March in the central business district. The 18-story Medina will feature 100 one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments. Another apartment hotel, the Landmark, will be ready in mid-1998 with 102 units on a site just blocks from Darling Harbor near downtown.
And the 255-room Rex Hotel, a mid-scale property operated by Singapore-financed Euro-Asia Hotels, is scheduled to begin receiving guests in November. The hotel's conference facilities consist of four function rooms, accommodating groups of up to 480 people.
In terms of larger hotels, the Sydney Harbour Casino, set to open by the end of the year, includes a 352-room five-star hotel and an adjoining tower with 139 serviced apartments.
At the same time, the 382-room Forum, The Grace Hotel, part of the Inter-Continental chain, is expected to open by the end of the year in central Sydney.