New hotel reflects the strength of tourism

ATTRACTING a major upmarket hotel brand to the Parliament Square development was a sign of Hobart’s strength as a tourism destination, Premier Peter Gutwein says.

Touring the construction site yesterday, Mr Gutwein said the 152-room, six-star Marriot Luxury collection hotel, which is slated to open later this year, would be a welcome addition.

“In terms of hotels, we’ve got a fantastic story to tell,” he said. “Here at Parliament Square, an investment of around $200 million has been made.

“Importantly, what we’re seeing is the Marriott Luxury Collection, The Tasman, on track to be finished by the end of 2020.”

He said the building site employs about 200 people and the hotel will employ about 130.

Mr Gutwein said there were around 1000 hotel rooms being opened in Hobart over the next 12 to 18 months.

Marriot Luxury Collection general manager Stephen Morahan said the hotel would be the first of its brand to open in the Australia-New Zealand region.

“I think it’ll look amazing, it’ll be a lot of energy, a lot of hustle and bustle, a lot of people coming to see what this brand is about,” he said.

“This hotel, particularly the food and beverage offering, has been designed to work with the local community first, and to cater to our hotel guests and other guests coming to the site as a secondary option because we really wanted to have a product that represents Hobart and Tasmania.”

Construction manager Barney Phillips said it was good to see the project nearing completion.

“We have here over 60,000 square metres of office space, 152 rooms, 186 car parks, restaurants and so on, so it’s quite a complex project,” he said.