'High quality, dignified' hotel for airport
Article from: The Advertiser
STUART INNES, TOURISM WRITER
April 08, 2008 08:30pm
A HOTEL proposed for Adelaide Airport will be "high quality and dignified" and have up to 200 guest rooms, the major development plan document reveals.
Adelaide Airport Ltd has issued the preliminary draft plan document under its obligation to invite public comment on the development.
The papers show the proposed hotel will be within a convenient walk, indicated to be within 400m, from the $260 million T1 passenger terminal.
The hotel may sit on part of what is now the main car park in front of T1. AAL also hopes to have a multi-storey airport car park to compensate.
The planning document says the hotel's lower floors are expected to include plazas and restaurants, plus such recreational facilities as swimming pools and a gymnasium. There also would be bars and lounges.
Airport hotels are popular for conferences and the one at Adelaide Airport is expected to have conference areas and meeting rooms.
The upper floors are expected to have 120 to 200 rooms over five or more levels.
AAL managing director Phil Baker has said "four or five major players" in the hotel industry are interested in operating the hotel.
In his foreword to the development plan document, Mr Baker says a hotel would give the travelling public new and innovative services.
"The hotel is planned to complement the airport's Terminal 1 and offer the travelling public convenient, high-quality and dignified services as part of their travelling experience," Mr Baker says.
Once construction work starts, it is anticipated the hotel would be operating within two years.
The planning document cites the steadily increasing occupancy rates of Adelaide hotels in its justification for a new hotel.
South Australian Tourism Alliance chairman Les Penley said Adelaide was nearing the point where it required another international-class hotel.
Mr Penley agreed with the concept of an airport having a hotel on-site.
"It brings it into line with other international airports around Australia," he said.
AAL is inviting public comment on the proposals.
The plan can be seen on http://www.aal.com.au and following the links to Corporate and then Master Planning.
