Daily News & Opinion

Adelaide Crows star Eddie Betts, Olympic gold medallist Kyle Chalmers and The Voice alumni Racheal Leahcar are some of the South Australian celebrities that star in the state’s new tourism campaign, ‘The Rewards Wonder’. Premiering at the AFL Grand Final on Saturday, the campaign’s one minute teaser showcased many of the state’s wonders, in an effort to attract the attention of audiences worldwide. The campaign also involved a five-day live stream activation showing 120 hours of continual SA footage.

Another day, another big name hotel headed to Auckland. This time, it’s a TFE-managed Travelodge Hotel, which will command the corner of Pakenham Street West and Halsey Street in the Wynyard Quarter by mid-2020. The precinct, which includes the head offices for companies such as Air New Zealand and Microsoft, will provide a mid-tier accommodation option for travellers. The hotel will feature 154 guest rooms and, together with the opening of NZICC in 2019, is set to bolster the city’s MICE appeal.

Synergy, Western Australia’s leading provider of electricity and gas, has appointed industry standard-bearer George P Johnson (GPJ) Australia as its experiential agency of record. The partnership, which comes during a significant growth period for GPJ, will see the company deliver Synergy’s experiential, creative, strategy, activation and production services. Regional manager Western Australia for GPJ Australia Natalie Pronin said “We are really excited about working with Synergy to support their customers and the WA community.”

Do you live in the Whitsundays? Do you care about your community? Do you enjoy having your voice heard and opinion valued? Well, today just might be your favourite day of the year. Tourism Whitsundays, in partnership with Whitsunday Regional Council, has launched the Brand Whitsundays Resident Survey to allow local residents to qualitatively contribute to the new Whitsundays brand. Mayor Andrew Wilcox said the initiative is a fantastic way to unite the community.

Between August 27 and 29, around 200 industry leaders, decision makers and government speakers met in Darwin for the 46th biennial Ports Australia conference. The event focused on the opportunities and challenges facing the country’s port sector, including infrastructure and the local economy. Delegates attended a cocktail party at NT Parliament House, listened to 23 presentations and enjoyed a sunset gala dinner by the harbour. Organiser Cameron Armstrong said Darwin was the perfect location due to its compactness and lack of distractions.

Pullman Tokyo Tamachi, a 143-room hotel set to open this month, will bring AccorHotels’ property count in the Asia Pacific region up to 1000. The group will also boast over 200,000 APAC rooms, which will represent 30 per cent of its global presence. CEO of Asia Pacific AccorHotels Michael Issenberg said the group currently opens a new hotel in the region every three days, and its goal is to change this to every two days by 2020.

On October 3, a panel led by CEO of the Association of Event Organisers Chris Skeith will address global industry topics as part of the EEAA 2018 Global Exchange. Taking place at the ICC Sydney, discussions will specifically centre on the presence of private equity ownership, the challenges of representing the sector to stakeholders and the future of the industry. The event is a part of the EEAA’s global partnership strategy, which allows the industry to connect with globally recognised leaders.

For the second time in as many years, hotel company IHG has been listed on the S&P Dow Jones Sustainability Indices. Widely regarded as a prestigious benchmark for corporate economic, environmental and social performance, the Dow Jones listing resulted from the company scoring highly in areas relating to culture, responsibility, human rights and the environment. Executive Vice President, Global Corporate Affairs for IHG Yasmin Diamond said “This serves as recognition for the hard work and dedication of our people, owners and partners.”