Breaking news for NSW

Sydney has won the right to host one of the world’s largest and most prestigious annual international business events, the 2014 Rotary International Convention, Minister for Tourism and Sport and Recreation, Sandra Nori announced today.   

“The Rotary International Convention will inject up to an estimated $60 million into the local economy, making it one of the largest and most lucrative business events ever mounted in Australia,” Ms Nori said.   

“This is a great vote of confidence in our tourism and convention industry. And is further confirmation that Sydney has the infrastructure, the know-how and the drive to secure world class events for the city.”  

Sydney’s bid was made jointly by three local Districts of Rotary representing 200 clubs, supported by the NSW Government and the Sydney Convention and Visitors Bureau. 

The Rotary International Convention is one of the world’s largest annual conventions and is expected to attract up to 22,000 delegates from all corners of the world.  

“The Rotary International Convention to be held in Sydney in May 2014 is considered one of the most prestigious events a city can secure,” Ms Nori said.  

“Other large international conventions tend to host up to about 5000 delegates, so at 22,000 delegates the Rotary event is massive.” 

“Having such high level visitors can also lead to business and investment opportunities for Sydney and Australia,” Mr Hutchison said.  

Rotary International Past Directors John Carrick and Barry Thompson, who led the successful Sydney bid, said they were delighted with the news from the most recent meeting of the Rotary International Board of Directors. 

“Our senior convention staff at Rotary headquarters in Chicago have gone on record as saying the excellence of the Sydney bid document will provide a benchmark for all future convention aspirants,” he said.   

The Rotary International Convention has been held in Sydney only once before in 1971 when it was a much smaller event.  This year’s event will be hosted jointly in June by the Swedish city of Malmö and the Danish capital Copenhagen. 

In just seven months NSW has secured two major international events with the Rotary Convention following on the awarding of the 2008 World Youth Day celebrations to Sydney. 

World Youth Day is expected to bring 200,000 young people to Sydney and inject up to $118 million into the economy. 

“I’m sure the staging of the Rotary International Conference will demonstrate once again, that there’s no place in the world like Sydney for ‘best ever’ world events,” Ms Nori said.  

Sydney Convention and Visitors Bureau Managing Director Jon Hutchison said that being a vocation-based organisation, Rotary’s members include leading business people.