This article is from the Australian Property Journal archive
THE Property Council of Australia and the Sydney Convention and Visitors Bureau have backed and welcomed findings from events supremo John O'Neill's, calling for an expansion of the city's convention and exhibition facilities.
The Property Council of New South Wales’ executive director Ken Morrison said the problems and the solutions were now very clear, and what is urgently needed was a firm funding commitment to plug this economic hole.
O’Neill’s report found a lack of convention and exhibition space was a major drag on the state’s economy, backing research commissioned by the Property Council and TTF Australia in 2007 which costed this loss at $218 million per year, equivalent to the benefit of hosting a Rugby World Cup every year.
O’Neill said the state is losing the economic equivalent of a Rugby World Cup every year because of a lack of convention and exhibition space in Sydney.
He warned failure to act could cost Sydney’s economy $3.8 billion and 30,000 jobs over the next eight years.
The report also recommends an expansion of the Sydney Showground facilities, located at Sydney Olympic Park in the city’s west, with domestic exhibitions to be redirected from the Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre in central Sydney to the Showground.
SCVB’s managing director Jon Hutchison there is no question that Sydney remains one of the most desirable cities in the world for business events, with delegates at international meetings giving high praise to the standard of our facilities and the professionalism of our industry.
“However, while Sydney is Australia’s leading city for business events, constraints on our exhibition space have forced us to turn away some bookings for international conventions with an exhibition component,” he added.
Hutchison said more than 220,000 international visitors would come to Sydney this year to attend 29 events secured with the help of the Sydney Convention and Visitors Bureau. These have a combined economic value of $278 million.
“The recommendations of the O’Neill report recognise the need to expand our city’s meeting facilities in order to ensure Sydney continues to maximise economic returns from the meeting sector and maintains its position as Australia’s premier business events destination.
“We look forward to the NSW Government’s response to the report.” he concluded.
“Our competitor cities in Australia and overseas are marching ahead and investing heavily. Sydney is already behind and we need to catch up,” Morrison said.
“Full marks to the NSW Government for confronting this issue, but now we need firm commitment to action. We look forward to sitting down with them to discuss the response soon.
“This blueprint will ensure the big event dollars are brought back to NSW and will have tremendous benefits for tourism, retail and the broader economy,” Morrison concluded.
Australian Property Journal
