World’s fastest-growing upscale hotel brand

The surfing capital of Australia and official gateway to the Great Ocean Road will soon introduce its first internationally-branded hotel, with the appointment of IHG (InterContinental Hotels Group) to manage The Casey Group’s new beachfront resort development, which will be known as Crowne Plaza Torquay.

Scheduled to open in December 2007, the $80 million Crowne Plaza Torquay will be the largest hotel in the historic seaside resort town just over an hour from Melbourne.  IHG will manage the 164 room hotel component of The Casey Group’s $130 million resort and lifestyle development on the Torquay foreshore, under the world’s fastest-growing upscale hotel brand.

Torquay is located 95km southwest of Melbourne and is central to some of Australia’s best and most celebrated surf breaks, including Bell’s Beach and Jan Juc Beach.  The hotel will feature the most extensive dedicated meeting facilities of any hotel in the Surf Coast area with five interchangeable spaces measuring over 460 sqm and offering stunning views over Bass Strait and the Southern Ocean.

The hotel will become the 15th Crowne Plaza in Australia, joining Crowne Plaza Terrigal and Crowne Plaza Coogee Beach as the brand’s third beachfront hotel and other popular meeting and leisure hotels such as Crowne Plaza Hunter Valley, Crowne Plaza Royal Pines Resort and Spa and Crowne Plaza Surfers Paradise. It is also the second new-build Crowne Plaza hotel to be announced in recent weeks, following confirmation that IHG will manage the hotel component of Hines Property’s 20 Hindmarsh Square project as Crowne Plaza Adelaide when it opens in late 2009.

As The Place To Meet, Crowne Plaza Torquay will be particularly focused on year-round leisure and business meetings and conferences.

“Torquay exemplifies our strategy for establishing Crowne Plaza in destinations with equal appeal to leisure travelers and meeting and conference organizers and delegates.” “It’s renowned as one of Victoria’s most popular beach and recreation destinations and, being only an hour and a half from Melbourne and 20 minutes from Geelong, it’s a great spot for all manner of business meetings and weekend getaways,” said IHG chief operating officer Australia, New Zealand and South Pacific, Keith Barr.

“Over the last five years Crowne Plaza’s dedicated services for the corporate meetings sector have been perfected to a fine art. We pioneered brand standards such as the Two Hour Response to all meeting enquiries and were the first to establish dedicated Crowne Meeting Directors as a single point of contact for planners at every hotel.” “In addition to being on great locations, we know our regular customers are attracted to the attention paid to meeting success through a range of innovations including the Facilitator’s Toolkit, flexible dining options for formal and informal meetings and many other services created to enhance meeting productivity.”

“The appeal of Torquay’s natural attractions and classic Australian surf culture to domestic and international travellers is strong, with the region enjoying the status of a year-round leisure destination.” “The opportunity to establish a new-build Crowne Plaza hotel in Torquay is a powerful proposition and one we’re very much looking forward to,” Mr Barr said.

In addition to the hotel’s advanced meeting facilities and accommodation, Crowne Plaza Torquay will offer a restaurant with panoramic beachfront views, ground floor bar, pool, gym and day spa. The mixed-use development is the latest in a string of lifestyle and retirement properties established by The Casey Group, which is owned by brothers Clinton and Mark Casey.

“Having a long term connection with Torquay, this development is particularly special for us and we’re excited about the area’s potential to attract more leisure travellers as well as conference participants,” The Casey Group director, Clinton Casey said.

“In selecting a hotel operator to manage the hotel, we wanted a company with a well established, up-market and nationally and internationally-recognised brand backed with proven management and marketing resources and capabilities.” “We also wanted a company that could demonstrate an ability to provide strong returns in similar locations to Torquay.”

“IHG ticked all the right boxes and we’re excited to be working with them to establish this hotel as Australia’s newest Crowne Plaza,” Mr Casey said.

Crowne Plaza Torquay is currently scheduled to open in December 2007 and is located at 100 The Esplanade in Torquay.

For more information on Crowne Plaza, visit http://www.crowneplaza.com.au/.

Report by The Mole