Sydney's misses out on $500 million from lost events

Sydney's failure to secure major international conventions and exhibitions, which instead head to Melbourne and Brisbane, has cost NSW half a billion dollars over the past five years.

Sydney newspaper the Sun-Herald recently revealed that the former NSW Labor government sat on a report exposing its "complete indifference" to the major events sector.

The report lists 15 conventions between running up to August 2016 that Sydney will not host because other Australian state governments backed their bids with financial and logistical support.

The economic benefit lost to NSW on those events is $250 million, bringing the overall financial hit to Sydney to $750 million by 2016.

Business Events Sydney Chief Executive Jon Hutchison says that NSW is now ill-equipped to take on the well-financed pitches of other venues, stating "after the 2000 Olympics, Sydney was in the top five cities for business conventions. The past decade has been a disastrous one for us in which the previous government showed complete indifference.

"Because there is such a high degree of lead time - often five to six years - so many opportunities have been lost."

The 'subvention funding' report, co-written with the Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre in December 2009 but buried by the former NSW Government, called for urgent financial assistance to bring Sydney back into line with Melbourne, which continues to improve its convention space, and Brisbane and Perth.

The report found Sydney had given up $334 million between 2006 and 2009, and Hutchison believes that figure has almost certainly topped $500 million by 2011.

Hutchison says that the "very low priority" given to the sector by the Keneally government meant 80,000 international business visitors stayed in other Australian capitals during that time.

Conference delegates are the most precious category of tourists, spending an average $554 a day compared to $94 by typical international tourists, according to figures supplied by the Tourism and Transport Forum.

Hutchison said the report, which was obtained from another source by The Sun-Herald, was put together "basically out of frustration" with the Labor government's disregard for the sector.

Sydney remains Australia's top drawcard city, with success in smaller business events, but its share of big international events has plunged.

Last year John O'Neill, the former Chairman of Events NSW, quit in frustration at a lack of action by the NSW Government. The new O'Farrell Government has begun rebuilding Sydney's reputation as the dominant city for events, with the Tourism and Major Events Minister, George Souris, promising an extra $45 million to promote tourism, part of which will go to improving major events bids.

Souris recently explained "we will be chasing opportunities on a far more regular basis through Events NSW and Business Events and we will have new convention facilities to utilise."

The Coalition made the construction of a new $900 million convention centre where the Entertainment Centre currently stands a first-term promise.

Minister Souris's aim is to have the convention space built in time to host the International Monetary Fund-World Bank annual meeting for 2015, if Sydney can secure the event.

Sydney Business Chamber Executive Director Patricia Forsythe believes that a new convention centre will help businesses, stating "business tourists have the highest spend of any tourist group, so the flow-on benefits, particularly to hotels and restaurants, is large."

Image: Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre 

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