Koo Wee Rup, about an hour’s drive from Melbourne, is perhaps best known for being Australia’s largest producer of asparagus. But the small Victorian town famous for its stalks (and spuds too), also lies at the centre of Australia’s largest travel and tourism related project.
In its latest Tourism Investment Monitor report (2021/2022), Tourism Research Australia (TRA) revealed that there is currently an investment of $44.3 billion across 244 major projects being undertaken across Australia to support the burgeoning demand in travel and tourism.
Aviation projects lead the enormous investment, with 14 developments worth a whopping $16.7 billion in the works – and chief among these is the proposed $7 billion Koo Wee Rup Airport located near Melbourne’s southeast corridor.
The planned hub would become Melbourne’s third commercial passenger airport, and serve “one third of Victoria’s population (including over 300,000 residents of the broader Gippsland region)”, planning documents released by the Victorian Government show.
The next biggest project is the $5.3 billion Western Sydney International Airport at Badgerys Creek, which is currently under construction.
Last week, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) issued Sydney’s future second hub with its official airport code in record time.
Meanwhile, there is a $1.9 billion upgrade currently in the works at Perth Airport, while there are a combined six aviation projects occurring across Queensland (three projects), the Northern Territory (two projects) and Tasmania (one project) worth $1 billion.
But with the proposed $1.5 billion new runway at Melbourne Airport, Victoria is clearly leading the way in terms of aviation investment dollars.
Rooms boom
While air travel attracts the biggest slice of the investment pie, most of the 244 tourism projects are in the accommodation sector, with 152 significant developments valued at $11.5 billion in the works.
According to TRA, these projects could contribute up to 23,000 rooms to the accommodation sector.
Arts, recreation, and business services have also attracted $16.1 billion across 78 projects.
Overall, Australia’s tourism investment grew by $1.5 billion (up 3.6 per cent) and 19 projects (up 8.4 per cent) over the 2020-21 pipeline.
The annual Tourism Investment Monitor reports on recent trends, the location of projects (by state and territory), and the progress of the development timeline, using three key data sources:
- Deloitte Access Economics’ Investment Monitor
- STR Global Asia Pacific’s Pipeline Database
- Investment authorities within state and territory governments
