Super yachts, floating tennis: Jerry Schwarz's plans to revive Sydney
Hotel mogul Jerry Schwartz says the tourism and hospitality industries will have to live with the uncertainty about when international borders will reopen and should instead focus on creating local events and experiences that will drive visitors back to the major city centres, amid a domestic tourism boom.
“We’ve opened up the regions to the cities, but not the other way round. To do that, we need extra drawcards,” said Dr Schwartz, whose flagship asset is the five-star Sofitel at Darling Harbour.
The former cosmetic surgeon, who has become the country’s biggest private owner of hotels, said he was involved in the planning of two “great events next January to draw people to Sydney”.
One of these projects is a tennis event on a floating court “in the middle of Darling Harbour” prior to the Australian Open in partnership with Tennis Australia and Destination NSW where international players would entertain crowds in “fun matches”. The second is a super-yacht festival centred around Shark Island that would ensure people stayed on in Sydney after the New Year’s Eve harbour celebrations.
“I want them both to happen next summer. I’ve had discussions with Destination NSW to get them to endorse these two events and get them onto the calendar,” he told The Australian Financial Review.
“We can take confidence that people are moving around the country; we should provide facilities that they can enjoy.
“I am a great believer in creating destinational facilities for guests such as the anatomy museum at my Hilton Surfers Paradise, a water park I am about to open at the Crowne Plaza in the Hunter Valley and the ice skating ring at the Fairmont Resort in the Blue Mountains. These draw people to the hotels and give them a reason to travel.”
Dr Schwartz slipped off the Financial Review Rich List in 2020 – he was worth $554 million in 2019, ranking 178th – as he and other hotel owners dealt with the fallout from the collapse of accommodation demand during the pandemic.
Staycation market
This week he exchanged contracts to sell his Four Points by Sheraton Sydney Hotel to American group KSL Resorts for about $150 million in a deal brokered by JLL’s Mark Durran, after coming under pressure from his financiers.
Latest figures released from STR show Sydney had a 58 per cent occupancy rate in April with Melbourne at 55 per cent and Brisbane at 48 per cent.
Year to date, the average occupancy rate in Sydney and Melbourne is just 44 per cent.
Dr Schwartz said his regional hotels were performing really strongly, but that his city hotels were doing it tougher, apart from on weekends, when hotels such as the Sofitel are benefiting from the staycation market.
Two of Dr Schwartz’s hotels are being used for quarantine stays.
On the question of international borders, Dr Schwartz said science and health concerns should dictate when the border reopens, after Accor hotel boss Simon McGrath urged the federal government to announce a specific date when overseas travel into and out of Australia would resume.
“Simon speaks on behalf of stimulating our tourist industry, our economy, and our labour force,” Dr Schwartz told The Australian Financial Review.
“At the disadvantage of these benefits, I am very cognisant of the medical issues involved in the eventual reopening of the country.
“It is very difficult to stipulate any firm dates. This depends upon the vaccination rollout, upon the disease overseas, and even upon any variants of the COVID-19 virus,” he said.
