Accor aims for further expansion in Brisbane and Perth
French hotel heavyweight Accor is turning its expansion attention back to Brisbane and Perth, admitting it’s a bit light on in both cities.
Chief operating officer Adrian Williams said a booming events calendar has helped deliver a standout year for the group, which now oversees more than 400 hotels.
But he said there’s still plenty of room to grow in Brisbane, where Accor has 22 branded hotels, and in Perth, where it runs just 12 properties.
“We have a gap in the network … we are very interested in adding more properties to the network in Brisbane,” Williams said.
Accor is looking to capitalise on leisure travel. Across Australia, Accor’s booking pace has been tracking about 16 per cent higher year-on-year since the start of 2024, as locals and internationals alike prioritise getaway time.
Overseas arrivals are also firmly back in the mix, with international room nights at Accor’s Australian hotels up 9 per cent on last year, powered by travellers from China, the UK and Singapore.
Sydney remains a star performer, riding a wave of leisure visitors and a healthy meetings and events pipeline. Since January, Accor’s average booking pace in the harbour city has climbed 6 per cent year-on-year. International visitation to its Sydney hotels is up 13 per cent, led by guests from Mainland China, Korea and Indonesia.
Williams said the surge in leisure demand is closely tied to the big-name tours and major events landing in capital cities.
“It really is built around leisure tourism, when good events are on people will travel,” Williams said, adding that there had been really strong hotel demand for the Oasis and Metallica concerts, while the AC/DC concerts were also driving good demand in Sydney and Melbourne.
“These event experiences are what people will travel for. You don’t just turn up for the concert, it’s the whole experience including a hotel stay,” he said.
He doesn’t believe higher airfares are putting too much of a dent in that appetite for travel either, arguing that experience is trumping pure price sensitivity.
Williams said he remains upbeat on Australia’s leisure outlook. “I have just spent three days in Queensland, where the government focus is on tourism,” he said, adding that Queensland’s tourism, events and marketing approach was impressive and was being driven by the 2032 Olympics.
On the development front, Accor’s pipeline is humming. “We have signed a lot of hotels in the past year, the pipeline is really strong,” Williams said.
Accor is aiming to open seven hotels during the last seven weeks of this year, including The Saint Kilda Beach Hotel in Victoria and the Mantra Hobart Airport in Tasmania.
Jonathan Jackson, 20th November 2025
