Under pressure to deal with increased international tourism arrivals because of the weak Australian dollar, Trade and Investment Minister Andrew Robb will today announce that nearly $11 billion worth of tourism and aviation projects have entered the development pipeline.
These include an ambitious proposal for the $550 million Brookwater Golf and Spa resort near Brisbane as a joint venture between Maxsen Capital Hong Kong, Dusit International and Brookwater.
Fresh from pledging $900m towards a luxury resort development on the Gold Coast, China’s Wanda group has also committed to spending a further $3bn on Australian tourism and infrastructure investments, according to the government’s Tourism Investment Monitor 2015, released today.
Much of the proposed investment is from Asian groups, including the $8.15bn Aquis project near Cairns, and the $1bn Upper West Side residential and Ritz Carlton hotel development in Melbourne.
“The depreciation in the Australian dollar has improved Australia’s price competitiveness for international investment and is welcome news for Australian exports, including inbound visitor arrivals,” the report says.
“However, exchange rate volatility has increased hedging costs, which may deter some previously active investor groups.”
Mr Robb will today join state and territory counterparts in Hobart to release the research, revealing $28bn worth of tourism projects are under construction in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, while the amount of projects committed to over the past year increased by nearly 9 per cent.
While 100 million Chinese travel abroad annually, that figure was expected to shoot up to 200 million within five years, and Mr Robb has previously stated that another 80 five- and six-star hotels and resorts need to be developed by 2020 if Australia is to compete with growing tourism markets across Asia-Pacific.
While aviation projects accounted for $31.3bn of the development pipeline, new aircraft orders last year were $1.8bn down on 2013.
However, the number of tourism projects on offer shot up by 29 last year to total 168 hotel, aviation and arts infrastructure ventures compared with the previous year.
Accommodation projects worth $8.5bn are being developed adding nearly 16,000 new hotel and resort rooms.
This article first appeared in The Australian Business Review