AUSTRALASIA – The Queensland State Premier Anna Bligh says the construction of the Royal International Convention Centre in Brisbane will attract 140 events to the city in the first nine months after it opens in 2013.
The AU$59m (US$63m) Royal International Convention Centre is not expected to open in March 2013. It is based at the RNA Showgrounds, where the existing Industrial Pavilion is being transformed into the 22,000sqm convention centre.
Bligh told local news agency, The Brisbane Times, the centre is also expected to attract an extra 30,000 visitors to the city each year. “It is estimated that in its first nine months of operation, 140 events could be worth an additional $20m to the local economy,” Bligh said.
The Brisbane Times reported Bligh and Royal National Agricultural and Industrial Association of Queensland (RNA) Chief Executive Jonathan Tunny both rejected suggestions that the RNA’s new convention centre would take business away from the newly-expanded Brisbane Convention and Education Centre at South Bank. “We can all live together, there is a tremendous market out there that we can all tap into,” Tunny said.
Bligh said: “We are seeing increasing demand for conferences, conventions and business meetings. That is why we saw the expansion of the Brisbane Convention and Entertainment Centre in the last couple of years, and it has just opened with full bookings.”
Tunny said a new hotel on the grounds to accommodate delegates at the new convention centre was still “a couple of years down the track”.
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