Pulling a Swifty: Hotels under fire for concert tour gouge

Convention king Harvey Lister has accused hotels in southern states of “gouging” fans attending the recent Taylor Swift tour but warns they may pay a price.

It seems it’s not only the supermarkets, banks and airlines ripping us off. Brisbane convention king Harvey Lister, the chair of ASM Global, has accused hotels in southern states of “gouging” fans attending big concert events such as the recent Taylor Swift tour.

“Having increased revPAR (revenue per available room) is fantastic but taking rooms from $369 a night to something that starts with a one, and oh by the way book for three nights or you can’t get the room, there’s a big gouge in some of that,” Lister told a Property Council lunch this week. “It’s a step too far.”

Lister says big events such as Taylor Swift did not happen every day and when they did organisers were looking for big profits, including a financial top up from governments.

“The danger for our industry is that governments are going to look at how they are going to fund these cheques,” he says. “So I do think as an industry, we need to be very sensible about how we approach that or somebody unfortunately is going to help us do our job for us.”

He says promoters were increasingly packaging tickets with flights and accommodation, allowing them to limit the number of cities they tour.

ASM Global executive chairman and CEO Harvey Lister.

“We’re seeing promoters saying they are going to have to move 28 trucks and 130 people so before they shift to the next city why don’t we have everyone flown to us,” Lister says. “Now they have cut themselves into the travel business and the airline business.”

Lister says Brisbane is competing against larger cities such as Sydney and Melbourne for major events and they are prepared to put their hands in their own pockets to attract the talent. “Promoters of events whether it’s entertainment or sport are going to governments even after they’ve taken the decision to do the event in the city and saying you know if you’d like us to do it in your city here is what we need. We had one rock band who we couldn’t fit at Suncorp Stadium because it was the first weekend of the NRL. They went to the Gold Coast City and the council wrote a check. Frankly, it was going there anyway.”

Fan girl

Former Labor minister and now Tech Council executive director Kate Jones has outed herself as a Swifty. Jones was a panellist at the same Property Council lunch earlier this week when she proudly displayed her Taylor Swift friendship bracelet. Friendship bracelets are typically composed of colourful beads and and spell out different words and catchphrases.

Kate Jones.

Art pause

Treasures from the Brisbane Convention & Exhibition Centre’s celebrated art collection are

currently off display, some for the first time in the Centre’s 29-year history, while they

undergo specialist conservation work

Centre general manager Kym Guesdon says the paintings are being conserved as part of the centre’s ongoing care and custodianship of its collection, which comprises more than 60 works by leading First Nations and contemporary Australian artists.

Spanning painting, sculpture and site-specific commissions, the collection was brought together to furnish the building in the lead-up to its opening in 1995.