Marisa Wikramanayake

Tour operators and hotels are feeling the pain as the country’s political turmoil keeps visitors away

Late last year the Spirit of Tasmania sailed into the new terminal at Geelong’s Port for the first time. And in the city’s centre, the Geelong Convention and Exhibition Centre is slated to open in 2025, right when the West Gate Tunnel and related…

If you take a trip across the Nullabor, you may hear about the world’s longest golf course or the museum dedicated to Skylab crashing to earth in 1979. And you likely already know of the underground world at Coober Pedy and the sadness and tragedy of…

After 52 years, the landmark motel is expanding its rooms and services including a adventure mini golf facility…

His company Fiveight has bought the property on the site of the former Gold Fields House. Previous joint-owners of the project Lendlease and Mitsubishi Estate Asian paid $850 million for the site in July last year. Mitsubishi Estate Asia has a 66.7…

Interest in hotels and tourism-related assets within reach of the Great Barrier Reef is continuing to run hot with Sydney hotelier Glenn Piper buying the Hook Island Lodge leasehold. The 9.3ha site is on the southern side of the island overlooking…

In 2021, the Mt Hotham snow season lasted just four days. “We knew we were done,” Mt Hotham’s chamber of commerce president Steve Belli said. “So we just shut up shop and rode it out.” This, after trading lasted just two days in 2020. But while the…

The iconic ferry that runs between the mainland and Tasmania has moved into its new Geelong port—and the hunt is on for accommodation to be developed to meet travellers’ needs. The Spirit of Tasmania now calls a 12ha facility at the port home—the…

US private equity firm Blackstone has won approval from the Federal Court of Australia to proceed with its $8.9-billion acquisition of Crown Resorts. SS Silver II will acquire Crown Resorts. It is an entity owned by or advised by Blackstone Inc and…

Glenn Piper says the $40-million project in Queensland’s Whitsundays is progressing as the region is again battered by wild weather…

Construction has begun on the Visitor Experience Centre at the Twelve Apostles Precinct on Victoria’s Shipwreck Coast. The precinct is being redeveloped thanks to a Federal and Victorian governments’ project that has delivered $126 million in funding…

Plans have been filed with the Victorian Department of Transport and Planning for an alpine glamping project in the state’s snowfields. The Mount Hotham Resort Management Board has proposed the developer for a site at 26 Poo Farm Track, Hotham…

Star Entertainment will sell its blue-chip Brisbane holding ahead of moving to Queen’s Wharf after Charter Hall opted to leave the table. Star has now appointed agents for its Treasury Casino complex at 21 Queen Street with the expected buy-in set at…

A Western Australia developer rejected the previous structure plan for the site of his Smiths Beach hotel project on the Leeuwin-Naturaliste Ridge, claiming it “fights with nature”. Instead, developer Adrian Fini has, since purchasing the site in…

A tropical Queensland resort has been relisted for sale after Covid-induced border closures forced the family behind it to take it off the market. The Neville-Smiths family from Melbourne has put Castaways Resort and Spa south of Cairns back on the…