Daily News & Opinion

Qantas has released its financial year results, which show a $1.83 billion profit before tax loss off the back of a $12 billion drop in revenue, as well as its plan to restart international flights to “COVID-safe” destinations from December this year.

The airline is basing its timeline on the timeframe in which Australia is expected to reach the 80 percent vaccination threshold, which triggers the third phase of the plan to reopen, including lifting the outbound travel ban for vaccinated Australians. Read more

With Australia’s vaccine rollout days away from opening Pfizer eligibility up to all Australian adults under 40, now might be the time for something Business Events Australia prepared earlier – a campaign to encourage Australians to get vaccinated to help restart business events.

Called “It’s our best shot for events” the campaign artwork encourages people to “get vaccinated and get ready to go”. Industry can download the campaign artwork to use across their own channels from the Business Events Australia website. Read more

Major hotel brand IHG Hotels and Resorts has launched a new luxury and lifestyle brand and an Australian property will be one of the first to join the collection.

“Our new Vignette Collection gives IHG a compelling way to welcome world-class independent hotels into our brand family, combining each property’s distinctive identity with the power of our global scale,” said CEO of IHG Hotels & Resorts Keith Barr. Read more

Save Victorian Events, which has been fighting for support for the Victorian industry during the pandemic, has released a national survey to help qualify the situation for businesses across the entire events ecosystem in Australia.

You can take the survey here.

Australasian business events exhibition Get Local has been rescheduled for a third time due to the lockdown of Greater Sydney. The event will now take place February 15 and 16, 2022, at ICC Sydney.

Co-owners of Get Local, Donna Kessler and Gary Bender, have indicated their confidence that by February, the necessary vaccination targets will have been met and domestic travel will have restarted. Read more

Rochelle Uechtritz has an extraordinary job. She’s a great ambassador for Australia and works in markets which may be seen as inhospitable, especially for women.

But ASM Global’s Director of International Market Development for convention centres in Asia Pacific and the Gulf region says the key is to build respect and show your professional competency.

In recent weeks, she shared the news that ASM Global is opening the largest convention and exhibition centre in the Middle East in Bahrain. Read more

Independent hotel group Crystalbrook has hopped on the vaccine incentive bandwagon, offering free room upgrades to vaccinated guests who book at their Australian hotels by the end of October for stays until December 20, 2021.

“The effects of ongoing lockdowns have been devastating to hotels, restaurants and bars and to the people that work within these industries,” says Crystalbrook Collection CEO, Geoff York. “Vaccination is the key to saving our industry.” Read more

While Melbourne awaits news on its current COVID-19 lockdown, Oakwood is pushing ahead with the Melbourne debut of its Oakwood Premier apartment hotel close to Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre (MCEC), that is now scheduled to open in October this year instead of in 2022.

It will be the first Oakwood Premier for Australia and the 10th of this brand which can be found in other major world cities including Tokyo, Seoul and Singapore. Read more