Hotel group Accor has signalled that it will develop a new breed of
hotels to help transform airport precincts into dynamic mini cities.
Accor Pacific COO, Adrian Williams, said the expansion of the group's
airport hotel network highlighted the evolution of airport precincts
into major commercial and service centres.
“Airport hotels are no longer necessarily just about transiting
travellers; they are the engines of whole new integrated multi-use
developments that have evolved to offer a complete mix of business,
retail, industry and tourism activities,” he said.
“Airport precincts are transforming into mini cities in their own right with their own demand drivers.”
Accor's newest airport hotels are set to open at Melbourne Airport on
1 July. The Novotel and ibis Styles Melbourne Airport hotels will be
Accor’s third and fourth in the precinct and the first new
internationally branded hotels at the airport for almost 20 years.
Accor said the transformation of the airport precinct into an
aerotropolis, would offer facilities to cater for business, conference
and leisure guests, as well as workers and visitors to the airport
district.
Facilities include three food and beverage outlets, function
facilities for up to 330 guests, and The Aerofoil hotel-serviced
co-working space, available to guests and non-guests for short-term or
long-term business.
Guests at both properties and transiting travellers will also have
access to Higher State, Melbourne's first airport health and wellbeing
club.
Between 2014 and 2024, Accor has increased its number of airport
hotels across the Pacific region from nine in 2014 to 22 in 2024
Australia's first airport 'resort' launched last December with the
integration of the Novotel & Mercure Darwin Airport hotels in
Australia.
In New Zealand, Accor added a Pullman hotel to its existing Novotel and ibis hotels at Auckland Airport.