The Geelong region, one hour south-west of Melbourne, is increasingly attracting a larger share of meetings business and events both from the Melbourne corporate market, and national and international association markets, thanks to a growing inventory of quality venues and new product.
In early 2007, the region was in the midst of an explosive summer season with many domestic and international sporting events as well as many large business events being held.
Sporting events such as Skandia Geelong Week, the Japanese Major League Baseball Asian Champions - Chiba Lotte Marines Training Camp and Airshow 2007 were having a great impact on the region especially in raising the profile on an international scale, while bringing in a number of related conferences.
Geelong has been proud to successfully host some large national conferences over the past six months such as the VIEW Club National Convention, Inner Wheel National Conference, the National Diversional Therapy Conference, and the Having a Say Disability Conference which has become an annual event.
With an ever-growing events and conference calendar, the region continues to attract a number of large scale investments into new conference resorts and upgrades on existing conference properties over the past few years.
What’s new
The Handbury Group is currently building a new 120 room hotel at their expanding, up-market residential golf development The Sands Torquay on the Surf Coast. The hotel is due to open its doors for business in October/ November 2007 and has recently changed management from Mirvac to a soon-to-be-announced national resort management group.
The hotel is located next to the fabulous Sands Clubhouse and has spectacular views over the 18 hole Stuart Appleby designed golf course, and is only a walk over the sands dunes to the beautiful Torquay beaches.
A new conference hotel, Hawthorn Suites 13th Beach Golf Resort, opened in December 2006 at Thirteenth Beach Golf Course, Barwon Heads. 13th Beach Golf Resort is a four-and-a-half star resort comprising 30 luxury condominiums that are located on the new and spectacular Thirteenth Beach Golf Links.
It is “just a chip away from the green and a stroll to the beach” and a few minutes drive up the road to Barwon Heads, the town that made “SeaChange” a household name.
One, two, three bedroom fully self contained four-and-a-half star condominiums are located on the highly rated Thirteenth Beach Golf Links, ranked 14th best in Australia.
13th Beach Golf Resort is the first Hawthorn Suites to be opened in Australia.
In February The Mansion Hotel at Werribee Park changed its name to Sofitel Mansion & Spa and officially joined the Sofitel network. It also launched the first LeSpa in Australia.
As Sofitel Mansion & Spa, the hotel is regarded as one of Australia’s finest boutique hotels featuring a range of exclusive five-star services and amenities. In the past 12 months, almost $1 million has been invested on upgrading the hotel’s facilities and creating LeSpa.
Opened in 2000 and located just over 20 minutes south west of Melbourne behind the original 1870s mansion, Sofitel Mansion & Spa offers 91 deluxe guestrooms, each elegantly remastered with superb luxuries including Sofitel My Bed, LCD TV screens, Roger&Gallet amenities and a range of new soft furnishings.
The Mantra Erskine Beach Resort in Lorne is open for business after a year-and-a-half long $20 million refurbishment program, which has transformed it into one of the 10 largest resorts on mainland Australia and the largest convention resort in regional Victoria. The refurbishment features new bars, a restaurant, café and a state-of-the-art conference facility catering for up to 600 delegates.
In October 2006, additional leisure facilities were opened including a 25 metre indoor pool, steam room, gymnasium and day spa.
In Torquay, a property development group are in the midst of construction of a conference and leisure resort named The Resort, Torquay. The Resort, Torquay is due to open in November 2007, and overlooks the beautiful Torquay Beach. The resort will offer 89 dual key apartments or 168 rooms, a conference area seating up to 250 delegates plus a number of breakout rooms.
For further information about holding a conference or incentive in the Geelong region contact Carine Bourcier at Geelong Otway Tourism on (03) 5223 2588 or email - cbourcier@geelongcity.vic.gov.au.
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