Tourism NT’s executive director calls for more hotel rooms

MORE than 200 hotel rooms need to be built in the Territory each year to grow the visitor economy by 2020.

Generic image of a housekeeper making a bed in a room of a hotel.

MORE than 200 hotel rooms need to be built in the Territory each year to grow the visitor economy by 2020.

Tourism NT executive director John Di Maria said there needed to be 205 to 225 hotel rooms a year created between now and 2020 to meet a $2.2 billion target. This would mean a minimum of 1640 would have to be created.

“The Northern Territory will need an additional 205 to 225 hotel rooms per year to 2020 to meet the 2020 NT growth target and keep occupancy to viable and sustainable levels,” he said.

“Overall accommodation is likely to present a key constraint to reaching the 2020 target if no action is taken to encourage investment in the sector.

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“Accommodation capacity and pricing pressures are being driven by increases in the resource sector actively year round, blocking out holiday visitors and impacting the Territory’s ability for the lucrative conference and event business.”

Mr Di Maria’s made the remarks at the Build the NT conference in Darwin.

From next Friday oil and gas company ConocoPhillips has booked out 500 hotel rooms in Darwin for its workers across three hotel properties. The booking was to accommodate workers as part of the company’s “shutdown” that runs for six weeks to enable an additional workforce to undertake maintenance of the operations.

Mr Di Maria said leading hotels should invest in the Territory.

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He said he would like to see a five-star hotel with 330 rooms developed in Darwin.

We need to show there is a solid return on investment for them to actually turn the turf and start putting some foundations down.”

Mr Di Maria said Tourism NT was in “constant discussion” with the NT Government and hotels.

He said the hotel room numbers were a “ambitious but realistic target.”

“We're reasonably confident, obviously, otherwise we wouldn’t put it out in the public forum, but we’re not underestimating how challenging it will be,” Mr Di Maria said.