travelBulletin

When Tasmania’s headline-grabbing Museum of Old and New Art (Mona) announced plans to target the conference sector with a $300 million expansion, Australia’s smallest state proved again that it’s perfectly capable of stealing the national spotlight.

In July, Mona’s enigmatic owner David Walsh unveiled designs for a striking cantilevered hotel on the banks of the Derwent River, with 172 five-star rooms and a dedicated function centre catering to up to 1,000 people.

Having seemingly generated his own arts-based tourism industry around his celebrated museum and launched the successful Dark Mofo winter arts festival, there’s no doubting Walsh’s ability to make a big impact.

But regardless of whether his ambitious plans are approved, Tasmania still has other tricks up its sleeve when it comes to developing business tourism and the events sector.

According to Business Events Tasmania chief executive officer Stuart Nettlefold, the island state is experiencing an upswing in events activity.

“The Tasmanian brand is strong and certainly has good pulling power when we’re working with associations, with PCOs and event planners to attract conferences to the destination,” Nettlefold said.

“This financial year is going to be a strong year for the sector – we already have over 90 conferences locked in.”

Forward bookings are currently 24% up on this time last year in terms of delegate numbers, Nettlefold said, with a string of mid-sized events over coming months scheduled to bring groups of 500 to 1,200 people.

“The associations and scientific conference segments are still very strong for Tasmania,” he said.

“What we’re also seeing is an emerging C&I segment because we do have a lot of really diverse and interesting experience-based products which are all in close proximity to Hobart and Launceston. They might be water or sea-based activities, adventure based or food and beverage — we’ve got a very strong food and beverage sector that’s putting out a lot of really good quality produce across the board.”

With a wider surge in leisure tourism, Tasmania’s accommodation sector is experiencing its most significant development boom in decades.

View over Hobart city from Mt Wellington, Tasmania

The design-focussed “storytelling hotel” MACq 01 opened with 114 rooms on the Hobart waterfront in June, while the 296-room new-build ibis Styles Hobart became the city’s largest hotel when it opened in July.

Another two hotels are now under construction — a Crowne Plaza and a Marriott — and others are planned to start soon, including properties from the Hyatt and Vibe stables. In the North, Launceston will next year welcome the new Peppers Silos, while other developments have been mooted for Tasmania’s east coast.

Nettlefold said the new developments would complement existing properties and events venues, such as the Wrest Point Hotel Casino, Grand Chancellor and Launceston Country Club. But he said the events sector had mostly escaped the impact of hotel shortages felt during peak season in the leisure space, mainly because conferences were held primarily in off-peak periods.

Among major events scheduled in Tasmania in the current year are the Australian International Education Conference for 1,200 delegates in October and the 22nd International Congress on Modelling and Simulation for 1,000 delegates in December, both in Hobart. Next year, Launceston will welcome the BerryQuest international agricultural conference for 400 delegates.

“We’re still very focused on the national association market,” Nettlefold said. “We’re continually looking at new leads and opportunities and working with associations, with professional conference organisers, to get their conferences into Tasmania

“We’re also continuing to look at how we can get broader reach through our Tasmania Ambassador Program in working with local academic and business communities to get some really good strategically aligned conferences that bring in global talent.”

Subscribe To travelBulletin

Name(Required)