PERTH’S functions and conventions sector is undergoing an upgrade in facilities to match increased activity, with construction of a new function centre under way at Joondalup Resort, extended facilities planned for Scarborough’s Rendezvous Hotel, and a new function space at Burswood Entertainment Complex as part of Crown’s plans for its development.
The construction of the new function centre at Joondalup Resort started in June and is expected to be complete in late 2013. It will expand theatre capacity from 260 to 500, banquet capacity from 180 to 500, cocktail capacity from 300 to 500, and classroom capacity from 96 to 300.
Christou Design Group was the original architect for the resort, which opened in 1996, and the group has been contracted to design the new function centre.
Rendezvous Hotel Perth in Scarborough also plans to expand its function facilities in a bid to transform the hotel into a world-class meeting and event venue.
The hotel will be renamed Rendezvous Grand Hotel Perth Scarborough in late 2012 and it is understood the function centre will more than double the capacity of its theatre, banquet, cocktail and classroom space, currently 800, 450, 1,000 and 380 respectively.
Rendezvous Hotels Group acquired the inner-city Marque Hotel Perth last year and rebadged it Rendezvous Studio Hotel Perth Central after renovating and increasing the function capacity to cater for 130 delegates.
Crown Limited recently announced its plans to develop a 500-room hotel at the Burswood Entertainment Complex site. When it is complete in 2016 it will be the largest hotel in Perth and will include convention facilities.
The Albany Entertainment Centre came online in 2010 and, with its theatre capacity of 620, banquet capacity of 150 and cocktail capacity of 1,090, it made the WA Business News Book of Lists at number 13 this year.
Architect Cox Howlett and Bailey Woodland designed the $70 million building, which was constructed by Doric and funded with $68.8 million of state government money and $1.2 million from the City of Albany.
The Book of Lists top five convention centres (ranked by theatre capacity) remain the same this year. Challenge Stadium had the greatest theatre capacity at 5,025, followed by the Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre at 2,500, the Burswood Entertainment Complex third at 1,800, Perth Concert Hall in fourth at 1,729 and His Majesty’s Theatre at 1,200.
With the extensive growth in conventions held in Perth, function space has become hot property.
The Perth Convention Bureau announced earlier this year that the largest value in conferences in 40 years had been secured in the 2011-12 financial year.
The PCB is a member-based not for profit that receives funding from the state government to market WA as a business event destination and win contracts for the state.
The bureau locked in $101 million in convention delegate spending in 2011-12, making it the most efficient bureau in Australia in terms of return on government and industry investment, which was $30 for every $1 invested last financial year.
PCB had its contract with the state government and Tourism WA to deliver conference value to the state renewed to 2016 recently, and chief executive Paul Beeson said the extension was testament to the value of its work.
“Our focus for the next four years will be to identify and target the high yield conference demographic,” he said.
“Our work with high-yield targeting to date has been specifically medical conferencing, with an increase in this conference sector from 1,000 delegates in 2009 to almost 10,000 in 2012; we’ve increased it 900 per cent over the past four years, and doubled it in the last year alone.”
Resources industry conferences are also a major market for WA, and the PCB has increased the number of events for this sector by 600 per cent in the past three years.
• See Book of Lists, page 12.
