APEC Sydney The Australian 2007

John Stapleton

WITH international delegates to next month's APEC meeting confirmed as being a third less than originally predicted, the hotel industry has lashed out at APEC organisers over the debacle which has left them with thousands of empty hotel rooms.

The industry is facing the loss of more than 12,000 hotel nights, after the number of delegates has been confirmed by the APEC Taskforce at 4,000, a third less than the predicted 6,000. Significantly less than 1,000 international journalists are now expected, down from the original forecasts of 1,500.

The hotel industry, at the request of APEC organisers, reserved a large number of rooms in the city's most prestigious hotels. Their feeling of betrayal after the weekend announcement that the original numbers would not materialise has been compounded by comments last week from Australia's ambassador to APEC, senior DFAT bureaucrat David Spencer, who accused the hotel industry of price gouging ``100-fold''.

Deputy Chief Executive of the AHA David Elliot said the industry was furious at Mr Spencer's conduct and the government's backdown on room numbers. Many five star hotels signed contracts with the APEC Taskforce to reserve rooms. He said the AHA would be very reluctant to work with the Federal government again.

He said APEC organisers came to the AHA two years ago and asked for their cooperation in planning for the event. 

Mr Elliot said hotels reserved the rooms ``in good faith'' and were now left seriously out of pocket. It is understood that within the contracts were clauses that allowed the government to cancel any number of reservations up to the eve of the conference without penalty.

``We never believed in our wildest dreams that those cancellations would be anywhere near one third of their predicted numbers,'' Mr Elliot said. ``In some instances that has been up to half a hotel's bookings. There has been no breach of contract, but there has certainly been a breach of good faith.''

At the same time the hotel industry had cooperated with the NSW government in creating an advertising campaign encouraging people to visit regional NSW during that period.

``It is very difficult to attract international and national tourists when there are inaccurate claims from Australia's Ambassador to APEC that we are price gouging and there is a perception in the community that Sydney will be an inhospitable place to be during APEC,'' Mr Elliot said. ``We call on the Commonwealth to run a campaign to promote Sydney as a short-term destination to interestate markets for the APEC long weekend.''

Yesterday afternoon a spokesman for Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer said he could not respond to the industry's claims as the minister was on a flight to Indonesia. The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade did not back up Mr Spencer's comments last night.