While the region is not scheduled to be a major venue for the Games, pre and post leisure touring plus the meetings and incentives sector is expected to swell demand for five-star hotel rooms in Cairns and Port Douglas.
Tara Bennett, head of Business Events Cairns & Great Barrier Reef, told micenet the figure had been projected in response to a 2032 tourism strategy from Tourism and Events Queensland.
TTNQ CEO Mark Olsen released the projected accommodation needs in conjunction with a futures conference in Cairns earlier this month, commenting that trusted global brands would be important in building international visitor markets.
“Queensland has set an ambitious growth strategy and to play our part we need those extra hotel rooms,” said Bennett, noting that the growth strategy was not just about the Olympics, but ensuring the future needs of Cairns and the Great Barrier Reef were met well beyond 2032.
Since 2018, three Crystalbrook properties have opened in Cairns, a $17 million refurbishment of Pullman Cairns International has been undertaken and – much more recently – approval has been granted for a $250 million, 116-room luxury resort in Port Douglas developed by Gurner Group.
Bennett said that while these met the region’s current need for new premium hotel rooms, the Olympics was only eight years away.
Another proposal to build a Fairmont resort in Port Douglas has so far failed to gain approval from the local council whose planning rules suggest you cannot build any structure in the town taller than a palm tree, which translates to about three storeys.
Bennett believes further investment in the region will be necessary and that to meet the 500-room goal will mean “one new hotel for Port Douglas and about two for Cairns”.
She said a mix of four and five-star rooms would work well for the business events market in Cairns and Port Douglas.
However, another issue that requires the attention of developers is an ongoing shortage of accommodation for workers in the region’s hospitality sector.
A significant factor in the projections is that the previously strong international market and international airline connectivity has not yet fully returned to the region. In 2019 Cairns had 5,046,895 international visitor nights, almost 10 per cent of the whole state’s 53 million international visitor nights.
“We have not seen the return of that international business to 2019 levels yet, although we have one Chinese inbound incentive group sending a regular wave of delegates through to December,” said Bennett.
“And the US incentive market is set to begin arriving in Port Douglas next month.”
