Coronavirus: Sydney events key to ‘future success’ of NSW

Sydney’s International Convention Centre has revealed the cost of COVID-19 to the state’s economy in it’s most recent report.

International Convention Centre Sydney chief Geoff Donaghy leads of tour of his venue ahead of its reopening in December. Picture: Craig Greenhill

COVID-19 caused a “devastating” hit to local spending generated by events at Sydney’s International Convention Centre, after it reported a $386m drop in direct expenditure for NSW compared with the previous year.

ICC Sydney’s chief Geoff Donaghy said the centre had been on track to deliver another record boost to the state’s local economy and would have outperformed the previous year, but coronavirus obliterated events and meant the business generated $510m in direct expenditure, down from $896m in 2018-19. “It was it was ­really a year in two parts … it was the best of times, it was the worst of times,” Mr Donaghy said.

“We had eight months of excellent performance well on the way to get close to another record ­operating year,” he said.

“Then in the first week of March the virus hit and basically shut us up and we had virtually no revenue-generating events for those four months.”

All of the $510m in expenditure was raised between July 1 last year and early March before COVID-19 restrictions were implemented, Mr Donaghy said.

Media Release: ICC Sydney has staged the first entirely in-person conference since coronavirus (COVID-19) restrictions came into effect in March this year: https://t.co/306T82CP1V pic.twitter.com/R5RCny1KTH

— ICC Sydney (@ICCSyd) September 28, 2020

ICC Sydney’s latest performance review reported the venue was on track to deliver another “extraordinary year” but the trajectory was “abruptly halted” by the pandemic. “Restrictions on gatherings and international and interstate travel prevented in-­person events from taking place at the venue from mid-March onward,” the report read.

Some 73 per cent — or $372m — of total expenditure was raised by international and interstate visitors before March.

There were 70,593 international ICC delegates who came to Sydney and stayed at local hotels and spent money on transport, in restaurants, at retail stores and on entertainment — down from 126,000 last year.

It was also reported 195,273 interstate visitors attended ICC events last year compared with 340,000 the previous year.

Mr Donaghy said the ICC would look to Australian delegates to kickstart the business’s, and Sydney’s, economic recovery.

“A vital, critical, essential element of the pathway to recovery is to get national events back up and running,” he said. “At the same time, we have converted our technical equipment and technology savvy staff to run virtual and hybrid events and we see that as being part of the recovery.”

NSW Planning and Public ­Spaces Minister Rob Stokes said the ICC attracted investment to the state and kept people employed, which would drive the economic recovery of the state.

“In just over three years of operation, ICC Sydney has generated over $2bn in delegate expenditure for the state economy,” he said. “We have hosted around 3.5 million visitors who have created four million overnight stays in Sydney.”

The ICC hosted 487 events up to June 30 this year, compared with 671 last year.

Yesterday, @OnlineRetailer Fusion was held for the first time ever as a one-day hybrid concept event bringing together the best of online and face-to-face elements in our Grand Ballroom. 150 delegates attended in person, and over 1,000 joined from home. #ORFUSION20 #hybridevents pic.twitter.com/j7PIdUC7Lj

— ICC Sydney (@ICCSyd) October 21, 2020

The ICC had to put on JobKeeper two-thirds of its 400 permanent staff because of the pandemic and had no “working hours” for 1200 casual staff.