SICEEP to ‘blow away’ MCEC

 THE NSW Tourism Minister has declared the redeveloped Sydney Convention + Exhibition Centre (SCEC) will not just rival that of Victoria’s prime conference venue, but “blow Melbourne out of the water” when it opens by 2017. Speaking with BEN, George Souris - who is also the Minister for Major Events - referred to the size of the project as “humongous”, enabling Sydney to offer greater competition to the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre. “It’s going to be a long year, but we are building something twice the size of what we were initially planning,” Souris said. Facilities include what’s billed as Australia’s largest exhibition space, at 40,000sqm, and the country’s biggest convention hall capacity for 10,000 people over four different spaces. While the Sydney International Convention, Exhibition & Entertainment Precinct’s design is still to be finalised, the Minister confirmed the project was likely to result in events being turned away during the rebuild stage. Questioned if the substitute Glebe Island facility - along with other alternative venues across the city - would result in conferences being hosted intrastate, Souris said “I’d say so.” “We’re hoping to make sure we cover the bases, but there will be events that will say ‘We’ll be back in a years time”. He said the SICEEP would take the better part of two years to construct, with the existing SCEC closing from Dec next year. Classed for all intents and purposes as a ‘pull down, start again’ project, Souris believes the SICEEP design will integrate some of the existing halls of the SCEC during its redevelopment.Within the project is a brand new build hotel for Sydney, sitting just below the 5-star standard. Souris was unable to comment on which hotel group was linked to the project, but confirmed it would not compete against The Star’s ‘6-star’, The Darling. As detailed in the November update on the SICEEP website, a “hotel use” site is earmarked for the Northern Sector of the precinct near the water at the existing Convention Centre. Two groups of companies have submitted bids to design, plan and operate the new facilities, Destination Sydney and VeNuSW. Among VeNuSW’s partners (via a joint venture with Plenary Group) is Hilton Worldwide. Back in June, Hilton Worldwide announced plans to debut its DoubleTree by Hilton brand in the Australian market with a new build property in Karratha, WA, saying at the time the DoubleTree brand has potential growth prospects in Australasia.

(Source: Business Events News 5/12/12)

Glebe Island Expo

News to hand is that five groups have submitted tenders to design, build & operate an interim venue on Glebe Island – the Glebe Island Expo. The plan is to host exhibitions and trade shows while construction takes place on the Sydney International Convention, Exhibition and Entertainment Precinct (SICEEP) from late 2013 to late 2016. The bidders are: Infrastructure Glebe Island Consortium, which include: Cox Richardson Architecture Pty Ltd, Singex Venues Pte Ltd; iEDM Pty Ltd; Probuild Construction (Aust) Pty Ltd - Sydney Harbour Expo@ Glebe Island: Pages Equipment Holdings Pty Ltd - GL Events SA- Expertise Events and Renascent Sydney Pty Ltd. While the successful tenderer will develop detailed plans, the Glebe Island Expo is likely to be constructed as a marquee-style structure. The successful tenderer is expected to be selected in December 2012, while the Glebe Island Expo is to start operating by late 2013.

Metro Hotels Exhibits at BTTB

Metro Hotels exhibits at BTTB

Over the past few years, travel managers and suppliers have had to contend with dramatic and often unpredictable changes in the business environment. Natural disasters, financial crisis, political turmoil and civil unrest made travel planning difficult and put pressures not only on travellers, but also on their managers.

With so much uncertainty surrounding their roles, travel managers need as much information as possible about the aspects they can control, and this year’s BTTB Australia conference aimed to provide vital insights into the travel supply chain. From pricing trends to global best practice, the conference content aimed to draw on the best information out there and apply it to the demands of Australasian travel management.

Over two days, delegates heard from leading experts as well as learnt from their peers in a conference programme that addressed the key issues of the day.

Now in its 13th year, also included the region’s biggest business travel trade show where leading suppliers such as Metro Hotels were on hand to demonstrate their products, services and solutions and discuss developments in their particular field.

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700 International Travel Delegates Arrive for Australia's Premier Tourism Event

Around 700 international travel delegates from 40 countries fly in to Sydney this week to meet with 1,700 tourism operators from across the country at the Australian Tourism Exchange (ATE) ATE is Tourism Australia’s premier business-to-business event, providing a forum for Australian tourism businesses to showcase their products, meet overseas contacts and negotiate business deals with the travel trade who sell Australian holidays overseas. Around 100,000 business meetings will take place during the event, which is being held at the Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre (SCEC) from 2 to 8 April.

Tourism Australia Managing Director Andrew McEvoy said ATE was important for building future demand for Australia’s tourism experiences in the international market.

“ATE is the most important event on the Australian tourism industry calendar and we estimate it will immediately inject more than $10 million in to the locally economy, but many millions more longer term,” Mr McEvoy said.

“Many deals will be done and millions of dollars worth of future tourism business for Australia will potentially be generated at ATE, resulting from the thousands of business meetings held during the event.

“It presents an enormous opportunity for Australia’s tourism industry to remain competitive internationally and will put us on track to realise the targets outlined in the 2020 Tourism Industry Potential.

“The 2020 Tourism Industry Potential sets an ambitious goal to double the overnight expenditure generated by tourism from $70 billion to $140 billion by 2020 – which events such as ATE will help us to achieve,” Mr McEvoy said.

Held annually, ATE is staged in a different host city each year, with the support of the State and Territory tourism partners and Qantas Airways. This year around 1,700 Australian seller delegates from approximately 600 companies will be participating in the event.

Tourism NSW Executive Director and General Manager Lyndel Gray said Sydney was looking forward to hosting the international travel industry for ATE 2011.  Having recently hosted ‘Oprah’s Ultimate Australian Adventure’, Tourism NSW has developed an exciting, welcoming program for ATE delegates.

“ATE contributes significantly to continuing the growth of international tourism markets to Australia.  This year 85 NSW and Sydney businesses, alongside Tourism NSW, will be promoting an impressive range of excellent tourism experiences and destinations.  The NSW tourism industry is primed and eager to capitalise on the business opportunities that will be created by their participation in ATE. .”

As the host State, Tourism NSW has supported the delivery of ATE for 2011 through securing buyer accommodation and the Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre as well as hosting buyer and seller delegates at three ATE showcase events during the seven day program.

Tourism NSW has also organised around 30 familiarisation itineraries across Sydney and regional NSW for international buyers to experience local attractions, dining and accommodation.  ATE 2011 has two modules covering the Eastern and Western hemisphere tourism markets. The Eastern Hemisphere module (Japan, Asia and the Gulf countries) will run from 2 to 4 April while the Western Hemisphere module (Europe, the Americas, Africa, New Zealand and the South Pacific) will run from 5 April to 8 April 2011.

Mr McEvoy said ATE was also important for giving the people who sell Australian holidays first-hand experience of the country.

“The beauty of ATE is that the international travel trade not only have the opportunity to meet Australian tourism business at one place but they also get to experience the destination and its tourism experiences first hand,” Mr McEvoy said.

“International buyers will get to immerse themselves in the host city Sydney during ATE and then travel to other destinations to participate in familiarisations that will help them to better sell Australia to the world.”

Australia received a record 5.9 million international visitors in 2010, an increase of 5.4 per cent on 2009, generating $24 billion in economic value for Australia. New South Wales received more than 2.8 million international visitors during 2010. International visitors spent more than 65 million nights in the State and injected more than $5.9 billion into the NSW economy.

(Source: Travmedia.com 2^nd April 2011)