{"id":20622,"date":"2013-10-16T09:18:00","date_gmt":"2013-10-16T09:18:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/traveloscopy.com\/travel-news\/nsws-bumper-long-weekend-of-major-events-2\/"},"modified":"2013-10-16T09:18:00","modified_gmt":"2013-10-16T09:18:00","slug":"nsws-bumper-long-weekend-of-major-events-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/traveloscopy.com\/travel-news\/2013\/10\/nsws-bumper-long-weekend-of-major-events-2\/","title":{"rendered":"NSW\u2019s Bumper Long Weekend Of Major Events"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #333333; line-height: 19px;\"><span style=\"font-family: inherit;\">The October long weekend was an economic boon for Sydney and regions, with hotel occupancy at record levels and more than 1.4 million people flocking to the city to enjoy a spectacular line-up of world-class&nbsp;<\/span><\/span><br \/><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"October long weekend - International Fleet Review - Sydney Harbour - med\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-424856\" data-mce-src=\"http:\/\/www.eglobaltravelmedia.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/October-long-weekend-International-Fleet-Review-Sydney-Harbour-med.jpg\" height=\"213\" src=\"http:\/\/www.eglobaltravelmedia.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/October-long-weekend-International-Fleet-Review-Sydney-Harbour-med.jpg\" style=\"border: 0px; color: #333333; cursor: default; float: right; line-height: 19px;\" width=\"320\" \/><span style=\"color: #333333; line-height: 19px;\"><span style=\"font-family: inherit;\">events.<\/span><\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: #333333; line-height: 19px;\"><span style=\"font-family: inherit;\"><br \/><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<div style=\"color: #333333; line-height: 19px;\"><span style=\"font-family: inherit;\">Minister for Tourism and Major Events, George Souris said the celebrations and shows in NSW across the weekend included:<\/span><\/div>\n<ul style=\"color: #333333; line-height: 19px;\">\n<li><span style=\"font-family: inherit;\">The International Fleet Review<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: inherit;\">NRL Grand Final<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: inherit;\">Spring Carnival Racing, featuring the Epsom Handicap at Royal Randwick<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: inherit;\">Parramasala Festival at Parramatta<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: inherit;\">Performance by Bollywood superstar Sharukh Khan<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: inherit;\">Three performances by super group One Direction<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: inherit;\">EB Games Convention<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: inherit;\">Manly Jazz Festival<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: inherit;\">Deniliquin Ute Muster \u2013 two days of entertainment<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: inherit;\">Murrumbateman Moving Feast \u2013 the region\u2019s best food and wine festival<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div style=\"color: #333333; line-height: 19px;\"><span style=\"font-family: inherit;\">\u201cThese events attracted an unprecedented influx of visitors, making it one of the busiest periods since the 2000 Olympics.<\/span><\/div>\n<div style=\"color: #333333; line-height: 19px;\"><span style=\"font-family: inherit;\"><br \/><\/span><\/div>\n<div style=\"color: #333333; line-height: 19px;\"><span style=\"font-family: inherit;\">\u201cWith so many people descending on the city to revel in the events, hotels across Sydney experienced record high occupancy levels. According to Tourism Accommodation Australia, occupancy levels in the CBD reached 98.7 per cent on the Saturday night, higher than during New Year\u2019s Eve, with revenue averaging 39 per cent higher across Friday and Saturday night.<\/span><\/div>\n<div style=\"color: #333333; line-height: 19px;\"><span style=\"font-family: inherit;\"><br \/><\/span><\/div>\n<div style=\"color: #333333; line-height: 19px;\"><span style=\"font-family: inherit;\">\u201cIn Greater Sydney, occupancies were above 90 per cent on Friday and Saturday night. That\u2019s an average growth of 17 per cent in occupancy year-on-year across the two nights and 52 per cent growth in revenue.\u201d<\/span><\/div>\n<div style=\"color: #333333; line-height: 19px;\"><span style=\"font-family: inherit;\"><br \/><\/span><\/div>\n<div style=\"color: #333333; line-height: 19px;\"><span style=\"font-family: inherit;\">Mr Souris said the visitor economic impact of the busy long weekend of events for Sydney and NSW was estimated at more than $50 million and the 184 events secured by the NSW Government over the past two and a half years has boosted the State\u2019s economy by about $1.2 billion.<\/span><\/div>\n<div style=\"color: #333333; line-height: 19px;\"><span style=\"font-family: inherit;\"><br \/><\/span><\/div>\n<div style=\"color: #333333; line-height: 19px;\"><span style=\"font-family: inherit;\">\u201cThis is a fantastic result for our hotels and tourism businesses across NSW and the long weekend\u2019s events brought a bumper number of overnight visitors to our city. It proves that our strategy of boosting tourism through major events is having a very positive effect on business and employment\u201d.<\/span><\/div>\n<div style=\"color: #333333; line-height: 19px;\"><span style=\"font-family: inherit;\"><br \/><\/span><\/div>\n<div style=\"color: #333333; line-height: 19px;\"><span style=\"font-family: inherit;\">It wasn\u2019t only Sydney hotels, which enjoyed a very busy long weekend \u2013 restaurants, attractions and retail outlets also reported an influx of patrons as well as out-of-town regions.<\/span><\/div>\n<div style=\"color: #333333; line-height: 19px;\"><span style=\"font-family: inherit;\"><br \/><\/span><\/div>\n<div style=\"color: #333333; line-height: 19px;\"><span style=\"font-family: inherit;\">\ufffcTuesday 15 October, 2013<\/span><\/div>\n<div style=\"color: #333333; line-height: 19px;\"><span style=\"font-family: inherit;\">\u201cDestinations outside Sydney, including Hunter Valley, Blue Mountains and the South Coast, also saw an increase in visitors, as people extended their weekend to explore the city\u2019s surrounds,\u201d Mr Souris said.<\/span><\/div>\n<div style=\"color: #333333; line-height: 19px;\"><span style=\"font-family: inherit;\">Tourism Accommodation Australia\u2019s NSW Director Carol Giuseppi said: &#8220;As an industry we welcome the major event strategy of the NSW Government. The flow-on effect across the broader economy is significant and makes Sydney and NSW a great place to visit and stay and the best place in the world to live.&#8221;<\/span><\/div>\n<div style=\"color: #333333; line-height: 19px;\"><span style=\"font-family: inherit;\"><br \/><\/span><\/div>\n<div style=\"color: #333333; line-height: 19px;\"><span style=\"font-family: inherit;\">Over the October long weekend, several hotels including, Park Hyatt, Rendezvous, Marque, Mantra 2 Bond Street and Mantra on Kent, reached 100 per cent occupancy on Saturday and Sunday. Accor\u2019s Pullman, Sebel, Novotel, Mercure, ibis and MGallery hotels were also at a record average occupancy level, while The Aspire Hotel reported its busiest ever Saturday night, bigger than New Year\u2019s Eve with revenue increasing by 52 per cent.<\/span><\/div>\n<div style=\"color: #333333; line-height: 19px;\"><span style=\"font-family: inherit;\"><br \/><\/span><\/div>\n<div style=\"color: #333333; line-height: 19px;\"><span style=\"font-family: inherit;\">Destination NSW CEO, Sandra Chipchase said: &#8220;With a strong line up for NSW in Summer, hotel bookings for other major event periods are already looking strong for exclusive Sydney events such as Corroboree Sydney, Sydney International Art Series\u2019 double bill of Yoko Ono\u2019s War Is Over! (if you want it) and America \u2013 painting a nation and the landmark, The Lion King musical\u201d.<\/span><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The October long weekend was an economic boon for Sydney and regions, with hotel occupancy at record levels and more than 1.4 million people flocking to the city to enjoy a spectacular line-up of world-class&nbsp;events. Minister for Tourism and Major Events, George Souris said the celebrations and shows in NSW across the weekend included: The [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20622","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/traveloscopy.com\/travel-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20622","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/traveloscopy.com\/travel-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/traveloscopy.com\/travel-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/traveloscopy.com\/travel-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/traveloscopy.com\/travel-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20622"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/traveloscopy.com\/travel-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20622\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/traveloscopy.com\/travel-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20622"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/traveloscopy.com\/travel-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20622"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/traveloscopy.com\/travel-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20622"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}