Queen's Wharf Brisbane welcomes state's newest mega-casino resort
Announcement posted by Expotrade 27 Oct 2015
27th October 2015, Brisbane, QLD: Brisbane maintains a vital role in the development of Queensland's tourism sector, with more than 21 million people visiting the city each year.
The number of international visitors flocking to Brisbane has increased more than 9.8 per cent over the past year, in part due to the unprecedented pipeline of entertainment and tourism developments shaping the city.
Following the announcement of several developments surrounding various casinos in Adelaide, Cairns and Sydney, the demand for large-scale gaming facilities has driven similar projects in Brisbane with the $2 billion Queen’s Wharf Brisbane.
The Queen’s Wharf Brisbane redevelopment will host an integrated resort and entertainment precinct, featuring the state’s newest casino, the introduction of Brisbane’s first six-star hotel, 50 new bars and restaurants, as well as a public precinct which is expected to host up to 190,000 people.
With construction expected to commence in 2017, the project will create 3,000 new jobs during construction, with projections of adding an additional $1.69 billion to the Queensland economy, along with 1.39 million new tourists annually.
The integrated resort will play a key role in advancing the Queensland economy by generating employment and attracting export earnings. Approximately $32.5 billion is spent by international visitors each year in Australia; a trend Brisbane hopes to take advantage of.
The development of high-end luxury precincts has proven highly successful in other parts in the world, most prominently in Singapore. The development of two major integrated resort casinos in 2010 has contributed in excess of $US14.8 billion towards the Singapore economy each year, expanding more than 49 per cent in the first three years of operation.
Much of this international success has ridden on the back of Chinese tourism, with the number of outbound Chinese tourists expected to reach 100 million by 2020. It is estimated that one-in-eight visitors to Australia are from China, accounting for 20 per cent of all international tourist expenditure in the country.
In addition Australians spend almost $20 billion on gaming activities each year, growing more than $15 billion since 2010 according to Casino Tropez. Casinos are also major employers and attract over 1 million international tourists into Australia each year. In Queensland alone, gaming contributes more than $1 billion in revenue towards the Queensland government.
The Queen’s Wharf Brisbane has been compared to the likes of the $6 billion Barangaroo redevelopment in Sydney which aims to redefine the north-western edge of Sydney Harbour with over 22 hectares of newly accessible public domain, retail and commercial spaces. This includes the development of the Crown Sydney, a six-star casino and hotel resort.
The bid to develop the Queen’s Wharf Brisbane was won by the Destination Brisbane Consortium which comprises of three major partners: Echo Entertainment Group (who operate the Treasury Casino & Hotel in Brisbane), Chow Tai Fook Enterprises, as well as Far East Consortium; all which own stakes in tourism, hospitality and infrastructure development.
David Edwards, Projects Chief Executive of the Queensland Department of State Development, will be speaking at the Queensland Infrastructure Projects Conference 2015, providing insight into the various integrated resort developments taking place across the state.
With an expected completion date of 2022, the Queen’s Wharf Brisbane is expected to add 8000 new permanent jobs at completion and help remodel Brisbane as the entertainment capital of Australia.
The Queensland Infrastructure Projects conference 2015 is being held at the Brisbane Convention & Exhibition Centre on the 1st & 2nd of December.
Source: Expotrade Global News