“It’s not just in the city. It’s all the way out into the suburbs, and that will continue. We’ve got one of the strongest hotel development pipelines in Asia Pacific,” she says.
It’s not just a hotel boom that’s happening in Melbourne, there’s an airport expansion and out in Geelong, the addition of the Nyaal Banyul Geelong Convention and Exhibition Centre slated to open in 2026.
Having worked in hotels since her university days, Swanson was naturally drawn to events and hospitality. She spent a year in London working at a brewery, which she says gave her more insight into customer behaviour and the needs of different people.
“When I returned to Melbourne, I moved into an event sales role at the Grand Hyatt, which was fantastic. Really understanding all the different sectors and the different types of events and how to sell them and coordinate them and deliver them which was an incredible learning experience.”
Following a variety of roles within hotel groups, she says the importance of building professional and personal relationships across the sector was a key learning that led her to a role with a “bigger picture across the city”. She found herself with Melbourne Convention Bureau, carrying on the baton from industry heavyweights such as Sandra Chipchase and Karen Bolinger.
“I’ve been with the convention bureau 14 years, which is fantastic. It’s an incredible industry. I love it. It’s always dynamic.
“You get to see the breadth of the tourism and events industry across the state. But you also get to do that depth of sector work with the cities, whether it’s talking to medical specialists or engineers, always meeting new people and learning about new sectors every day.”
She attributes the quality of these business leaders and Melbourne’s thriving start-up community to boosting the profile of the destination internationally and, in turn, driving growth and demand.
“We’re seeing a lot of micro business startups and a lot in advanced manufacturing and highly scientific technical manufacturing. We’ve always done a lot in medical research and all the related health sectors. We are a big medical hub and in the research space, very much up there with the London and the Bostons of that space. So we have around 40 per cent of our events in that sector and that will continue to grow and that’s…testament to the quality of the research institutes we have.
Add in Melbourne’s world-leading academics and Swanson says it’s a big draw card for events like the recent regional meeting of the World Health Summit, which attracted world leaders and more than 1,100 participants from around the globe.
The Lions International Convention also recently brought more than 10,500 delegates from a large range of countries to Melbourne.
“I think at the moment, the economic climate is very different in different parts of the world. And we’re seeing the cost of business rising and inflation, which are big factors at the moment, but I think the underlying strengths of Australia and Melbourne will continue.
“We’re still an attractive place to visit. We’re safe, we’re secure, a trusted partner to do business in terms of business integrity, and we’re very diverse in our population and quite inclusive. And that’s something that our clients are very much looking forward to bringing in conferences.”
If there is a challenge ahead, Swanson says it’s a global one: how to demonstrate the value of the business, collaborations and other outcomes from these events.
“It’s very easy to quantify the tourism outcomes in terms of numbers of delegates and how long they stayed and how many hotels. But just that bit beyond tourism, the research exchanges, trade and investment that occurs in our meetings, the partnerships. Skilled migration, all those longtail benefits of our sector.
“That’s consistent with business events globally, not just in Melbourne. But I think overall our reputation is quite strong and all the work that all the convention bureaus and Tourism Australia and Business Events Australia are doing in driving that continues to be important.”
For now, it’s full steam ahead, with several more hotels ready to open including a new Shangri-La and Crowne Plaza Melbourne Carlton.
“We look forward to driving more demand. It’s a really, exciting time of growth,” says Swanson.
