A wave of visitors crammed into Canberra's buses, pubs and hotels last weekend ahead of Spilt Milk festival, raising questions about the city's capacity to host crowds.
Light rail and bus services were stopped briefly on the Saturday night of Spilt Milk, as organisers and police moved a crowd of people walking on the tracks, as Uber charges surged massively.
Canberra Business Chamber chief executive Graham Catt said the festival had shown Canberra was on the map, but making events a positive experience had to be a bigger priority.
"I think we also saw that there was some room for improvement in terms of the city infrastructure and its ability to actually cope with those kind of crowds, and make sure that it's a great experience," he said.
"It's one thing to get people to come here, but obviously, what we really want when we're bringing people to Canberra, whether it's for a major event like this, or for Floriade, or any other thing, that that experience is a positive one."
Government 'looking seriously' at growing infrastructure
The ACT government is moving ahead with infrastructure projects which could bolster Canberra's events economy, and will on Monday release its Tourism Strategy for the next eight years.
A revamped Canberra stadium would build on its current capacity by at least 5000 seats, Chief Minister Andrew Barr said in October, bringing the total to 30,000.
There are also plans to construct a 10,000-square-metre event facility at Exhibition Park in Canberra, with upgrades to enhance current major events, such as Summernats, the Royal Canberra Show, National Folk Festival and Groovin' the Moo, while also increasing EPIC's capacity to hold events.
A venue in the city could also host 7500 people at concerts, modelled off Sydney's Hordern Pavilion, while an expanded convention centre could build expos, travel shows and conferences in the capital.
"I think the important thing is that now they're looking very seriously at these infrastructure projects," Canberra Region Tourism Leaders Forum chair David Marshall said.
"They've already committed to a new Canberra Theatre, which in itself will be of immense benefit to the city."
But building up Canberra's events will face obstacles on multiple fronts.
"At the moment the biggest challenge is having contractors to undertake capital works. The costs have gone up as well as the infrastructure pipeline, which has been slowed dramatically by COVID and the lack of available tradespeople," Mr Marshall said.
Government releases its tourism strategy
The government envisions the visitor economy will grow to be worth from $4 billion in annual expenditure of domestic and international visitors by 2030, in its latest Tourism Strategy 2030 report.
Annual visitor expenditure in the 2022 financial year amounted to $1.7 billion.
Domestic visitor overnight stays are anticipated to rebound to pre-pandemic levels by 2024, while international visitor levels are expected to rebound to pre-pandemic levels by 2026.
To reach this goal, the territory will need 776 new accommodation rooms at 75 per cent occupancy.
This increase will be vital, Mr Marshall pointing to booked up hotels during Federal Parliament sitting weeks.
"It's a challenge to get a room. The dilemma is that we need investors to come in and have a look and see how the market is performing," he said.
"Investors will gain confidence from a hotel point-of-view if occupancy in all the accommodation facilities are at about 85 or 90 per cent, and they're getting up there."
Events will bring business boost
Though crowds poured into the city at the festival's conclusion, Civic Pub owner Mike Dawn said many of them had opted to head home.
"It just tips trade upside down a little bit, so Friday was super busy with all those extra people in town, Saturday not so much," he said.
Even so, events such as music festivals were helping to bump Canberra as a destination location.
"I think the more people that are coming to Canberra, and seeing what we've got to offer, are probably impressed with what they see and I think it just sort of flows from there," Mr Dawn said.
"You've got to get people in town to check it out, and I think events like last weekend are terrific for that sort of thing."
There was clearly a role for events to play in the territory's economy, Mr Catt said.
"In terms of what these events bring into our economy, there's clearly an upside there and there's clearly a role for them in actually driving business," he said.
"Certainly just before a sitting week I think it really added to the business, particularly for accommodation providers and for hotels and restaurants and bars and other venues."
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