Hotel and hospitality group Accor Pacific are closing a strong year, still with two more hotel openings, and celebrating some sustainability milestones too. Karryon attended a media lunch in Sydney to learn more.
It was a warm, final day of spring at Accor’s Pullman Quay Grand, where media guests gathered in the hotel’s Hyde Hacienda Sydney Bar + Lounge, overlooking the Sydney Opera House, to join CEO of Accor Pacific, Sarah Derry.
Derry was also joined by fellow senior executives, David Young, Sustainability Officer and Director of ESG, Accor Pacific; Claire Haigh, Accor Vice President of Communications, Pacific; Anne Gill, Senior Vice President Commercial, Accor Pacific; and Naomi Hammond, Accor Communications Manager, Pacific.
2023 performance and tourism
“If we look at how the hotels have performed this year, it has really been a story still of domestic tourism being incredibly strong,” said Sarah Derry.
“People are in their backyards, they are still hearing positive events. The cost of airfares and capacity is still having an impact around that. So we’ve actually seen particularly in markets like Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, it’s not just the leisure destinations that have improved this year… it’s been led through sporting events, the arts and entertainment return, concerts, all those fabulous things – it has been good to see,” she said. “I would say what we’re seeing for the rest of the year leading up to Christmas, we are seeing people still wanting to travel – and I know cost of living is biting, it’s real, and affecting people here in Australia, New Zealand, across the Pacific and globally.”
“But what we seem to see happening is that people are opting to still have that special opportunity to get together and have a vacation. A lot of it is still a little last minute. We’re still reasonably confident with what we’re seeing in the trends in terms of booking pace. The great news for next year is that we’ve got a huge calendar of events right across Australia… take Sydney as an example, with Taylor Swift … if I had 10 million tickets, it wouldn’t be enough!” she said.
Derry also shared that Accor Pacific has had an “incredible” 10 million guests through its doors in 2023.
“You take an event like FIFA – incredible right across Australia, New Zealand and what a partnership – how incredible to see the success of that. That delivered 43,000 rooms for Accor alone, in addition. I would just say to you the investments that state and federal government make are critically important because when you see events like that, it delivers not just for hotels: it delivers jobs in retail, in outlets, in airports – everywhere.”
“So it is about job-making and giving Australians security around that, but it is also about business owners and investors having confidence to continue to invest in Australia as well. My call-out is to continue that sort of level investment on events like FIFA,” said Derry.
“We’re finally got back to our 2019 numbers of total team members that we have. So we’re sitting around 21,000 team members and growing at this point,” she said.
Accor Pacific opened 13 hotels in 2023 – with still two more to open before the year’s end in with Pullman Airport hotel in Auckland, slated to be a signature Pulllman.
“We also saw the Handwritten brand launched in this region and we had the very first for Accor right down here in Australia. We had the Wonil Hotel Perth open and the Hotel Morris here in Sydney.
“Accor is deeply rooted in the Pacific but it has a very strong French heritage and that’s what makes us quite unique. It is about human connection , people and making sure that people have great experiences – whether that’s our team, our partners and obviously all our guests,” she said.
Partnerships will continue to be a focus in 2024, with events such as SXSW – with some “exciting news coming onboard with them next year as well.”
Sustainability focus
In attendance was also David Young, Chief Sustainability Officer and Director of ESG for Accor Pacific.
“I often talk about sustainability is not a competitive advantage for us – it’s something as an industry we really need to collectively work on, and so we’re very passionate about doing that,” said Derry.
“We’ve been very much focused this year on sustainability and what more we can do in that space. And so we were delighted a few months ago to announce that Accor was the first accommodation provider to have a unique partnership with Eco Tourism Australia for certification. That’s so important because talking about sustainability is one thing – actioning it is another thing but the real piece is who independently is going to assess us? That’s critically important. And so that’s why we’re so focused on the need to make sure that we had a certifier that was globally recognised but who would also keep us true to our word as well,” said Derry.
The group has had four hotels already certified, with more on the way. Derry also said that Accor Pacific in 2023 had wanted to hit a target to remove single use water bottles in their hotels, with a target for 2023 to remove them in 80 per cent of their hotels.
“We have overachieved on this thanks to David and his team, and operations – so we’re really pleased that single use plastic water bottles have been removed from 80 per cent plus of our hotels. They’re also actively working on food waste and that’s the next big project for us that we’re working on as well,” she said.
For more information, visit resorts.accor.com
