Hurstville should start planning for first-class accommodation to cash in on the growing number of Chinese nationals who have the money to travel.
Chamber of Commerce president Lou Konjarski said the chamber had been discussing the lack of short-term accommodation for a while but after listening to Trade and Investment Minister Andrew Robb, he felt the time had come to act.
Mr Robb was at Hurstville on February 5 to promote the new free-trade deal with China.
Quoting the minister’s figures, Mr Konjarski said that at least 200 million of China’s approximate 1.4 billion people had the means to travel.
‘‘There is a demand for short-term accommodation but there are no hotels at Hurstville,’’ Mr Konjarski said.
‘‘Andrew Robb suggested the council earmark a site and approach developers but we need more than that; the state and federal governments need to get involved. We need a good, high-class hotel.’’
Hurstville councillor Nancy Liu, who attended the free-trade event, said much work would need to go into making Hurstville more attractive to Chinese tourists.
She said roads and infrastructure would need to to be improved and suggested a long-term promotion program involving the state government.
Cr Liu said Chinese tourists mostly stayed in the city or Parramatta if they wanted budget accommodation.
Hurstville mayor Con Hindi, who did not attend the meeting, said the council had been approached already by a developer to build a high-class hotel and plans were drawn up.
But he would not comment further until there was more certainty.
All agreed that the best place for hotels was along the rail corridor — Bridge Street, Gloucester Road and Treacy Street — and they would best be part of a residential/commercial mix.
But Hurstville needed a facelift to look desirable to tourists, with roads a major problem.
"We cannot afford to miss the boat by not building decent hotels and the necessary infrastructure, otherwise, other suburbs will take this market," Cr Hindi said.
"Hurstville needs to become a destination and we need to encourage investors."
Cr Hindi is keen to get the city centre plan up and going, which would develop a new civic precinct on the 13,000-square-metre area bordered by MacMahon Street, Queens Road, Park Road and Dora Street.
The new civic precinct would incorporate new council chambers, cultural buildings and commercial and residential developments amid plenty of green space and with enough underground parking to solve the area's parking problems.
GOING UP
The owner of Hurstville’s only accommodation-providing hotel said that demand for beds was going through the roof.
Steve Bowden said the Ritz Hotel’s 17 rooms were full 80 to 90 percent of the time; at least 70 percent of the guests came from China.
Mr Bowden said many of them were investors wanting to talk to real estate agents about buying at Hurstville.
The former owner of the Meridien, further up Forest Road, bought the Ritz Hotel in 2010 with the idea of re-establishing hotel accommodation, knowing there was big demand.
He said his vision for the future was to add 14 storeys of Travelodge-style accommodation above the hotel.
Does Hurstville need a five-star hotel?
