Thank you very much to Business Events Cairns & Great Barrier Reef for the opportunity to discover the Tropical North Queensland region.
What a great surprise, straight out of the plane, to see that venues and hotels are only a 10-minute drive from the Cairn’s Airport! I discovered a small city, overflowing with very diverse options in terms of venues, activities, atmospheres… all within walking distance for your conference or incentive delegates.
Our famil gave us a great opportunity to meet with fantastic people who are very professionally invested, creative and flexible, which makes organising your events in the destination easy.
Three four-star hotels and seven five-star hotels are ready to welcome your groups. A number of them include:
The entirely renovated Novotel Cairns Oasis Resort immerses you within a beautiful tropical garden, in the middle of the city. A deep feeling of relaxation wraps you straight from the lobby.
Materials and colour have been carefully selected.
The hotel has five meeting rooms that can accommodate up to 200 pax in theatre style.
The Shangri-La Hotel offers 255 totally refurbished accommodation rooms with a beautiful view to the Cairns Marina and 18 meeting rooms.
I had a great time in this establishment. My room was very comfortable, the decor was updated with taste and the location is perfect!
The three totally new establishments of the Crystalbrook Hotel Collection: Bailey and Riley Hotels have just opened.
The Bailey (Pictures above) has four unique meeting zones for up to 200 pax and 255 accommodation rooms.
The Riley has six meeting rooms with removable walls with the ability to create two larger spaces. One for 400 pax and one for 210 pax theatre style. There are 311 accommodation rooms.
Also, I had the privilege to have a pre-opening site inspection of the Flynn Hotel which will open in April 2020! While the details and decor are yet to be finalised, we can already tell that it’s originality will surprise you. You may walk through a corridor, look up and see people swimming just above you!
The three hotels bring a total of 877 fantastic modern accommodation options to the market.
The Cairns Convention Centre is currently undergoing a full refurbishment of exhibiting facilities and an expansion providing an additional 3,000 sqm of space, with the new venue being available for hire from November 2020.
The city also offers 16 restaurants where you can organise lunches and dinners for your groups. Among them, I visited the following:
The Salt House restaurant has multiple rooms. While it was very festive outside, on the evening we went there, the restaurant rooms offer a more intimate ambiance.
The food was delicious, and the service was excellent. We had a reduced menu to choose from and all the group enjoyed our dinner together.
Hemingway Brewery is an audacious idea for a dinner. Facing the sea, the venue proposes a casual and authentic atmosphere. Perfect for a casual dinner after a long day working.
Dundee’s Restaurant was a great discovery too. Seafood was ultra-fresh and succulent. All is about fish here as this is the Cairns’ Aquarium restaurant.
The restaurant can be used during opening hours but also for the dinner, as a private venue.
This small city with strong personality has a bright future in the event industry. Vibrating and rapidly expending, I see there a huge potential for fantastic projects off the beaten track.
