PRESIDENT UPDATE
With a new year just weeks away, Tasmania will close out 2025 having taken one of the most significant and future-defining steps in its modern history. With the Upper House voting to support the Macquarie Point Stadium, our state has chosen progress, ambition, and long-term prosperity. This is more than a construction project – it is a generational decision that will transform our events landscape, supercharge our visitor economy, and deliver lasting benefits to every corner of Tasmania. For years, we’ve talked about the potential. Now, it’s real. Tasmania will finally have the world-class stadium precinct it deserves, a venue capable of hosting elite sport, concerts, conferences, major exhibitions and year-round events. And with that comes confidence: confidence for operators to invest, confidence for visitors to travel, and confidence for government and industry to build stronger pathways for growth. It is no exaggeration to say this is a once-in-a- generation project, one that will fundamentally reshape our visitor economy, our events landscape, and the long-term viability of Tasmania’s hospitality sector. This debate has not been easy. Major projects never are. But the evidence has become impossible to ignore and we’ve already had a glimpse of what this future looks like. The well-publicised pro-stadium rally drew, as estimated by Tasmania Police, 15,000 into the Hobart CBD. The impact on hospitality venues was extraordinary. Operators across Salamanca, Battery Point and Sandy Bay reported double their usual Sunday trade – with year-on-year numbers that leapt by 100, 300 and even 450 per cent in some cases. That’s the power of major events. That’s the power of people moving with purpose.
Now imagine that uplift magnified across dozens of game days, blockbuster concerts, conferences, festivals and major exhibitions every year. Imagine the shoulder-season transformation. Imagine the flow-on for accommodation providers, suppliers, producers, transport operators, tour companies and community clubs. This isn’t just good for hospitality – it’s economic oxygen for the entire state, because we know the benefits won’t stop at the Hobart waterfront. This decision also ensures Tasmania secures more than $600 million in external investment from the Federal Government and the AFL, funding that would have disappeared forever if we failed to act. Instead, we now anchor a precinct that will catalyse new development at Macquarie Point and help attract the high-value visitors our state depends on. Hospitality Tasmania has advocated strongly because we know what this means for our members. It means fuller venues. Stronger winters. More jobs. More reasons for young Tasmanians to stay and work here. More opportunities for local producers. More confidence to invest. I said recently in the northern media that cities don’t grow by standing still. They grow by backing bold ideas. Tasmania has now done exactly that. This is a defining legacy decision – one future generations will thank us for. Thank you to our members for your unwavering support and your belief in what is possible. As we head into the busiest period of the year, we do so with optimism and excitement for what lies ahead. I wish everyone a merry and safe Christmas and New Year period.
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Tasmanian Hospitality Review December/January Edition
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