Almost two decades since exiting Australia, the Ritz-Carlton brand returns with a new luxury development in Perth – the first of several in the region.
After a nearly 20-year absence, Ritz-Carlton returns to Australia next month when its luxury five-star Perth hotel opens to the public.
The $500 million waterfront property – with sweeping views over Perth’s Swan River and nearby Bell Tower and Kings Park & Botanic Garden – welcomes its first guests on November 15.
The Perth development is the brand’s first foray in Australia since 2001, when it closed the Ritz-Carlton Double Bay in Sydney – the iconic hotel where INXS frontman Michael Hutchence died in 1997.
Images: Ritz-Carlton
Occupying two towers at Elizabeth Quay, the new property has 204 guest rooms (including 18 suites), ground floor retail space, waterfront dining and luxury one, two and three-bedroom apartments.
Reflecting Western Australia’s ancient outback, the hotel exterior and lobby is clad in 10,000 pieces of handpicked Kimberley sandstone. It is designed to give the sense of walking through the Karijini Gorges – a landscape shaped over 2,500 million years.
Other highlights include a spa developed by GOCO Hospitality, a rooftop bar and restaurant known as Songbird and an affinity pool overlooking the Swan River.
The Ritz-Carlton will also be home to the restaurant Hearth, which will focus on produce from Western Australia’s Kimberley and Great Southern regions, pairing food with an exclusive local wine list.
Images: Ritz-Carlton
The arrival of Ritz-Carlton Perth comes at the peak of a major boom in Western Australia’s hotel sector, with 1,755 new rooms under construction and another 1,707 in the planning stages, according to Tourism Accommodation Australia.
Other newcomers in Perth include Tribe Hotel West Perth, DoubleTree by Hilton at Northbridge and Riverside Drive, Park Regis at Subiaco, Ibis Style Hotel East Perth, Quest in Perth and Joondalup and Capital Square (the former Emu Brewery site) on Mounts Bay Road.
For US hotel giant Marriott International, which owns the Ritz-Carlton brand, Perth is the first of several major developments planned in Australia and the Asia Pacific region over the next year.
The 79-storey Ritz-Carlton Melbourne will open at 250 Spencer Street in early 2020, making it the tallest hotel in Australia. Auckland will also welcome its first Ritz-Carlton ahead of the 2021 America’s Cup.
But plans for the 61-storey Ritz-Carlton at The Star at Pyrmont in Sydney are in tatters after being rejected by the NSW Government.
Tourism bosses have repeatedly complained that Sydney is being crippled by a lack of luxury five and six star hotels, with few built since the 2000 Olympics.
© 2019 Bernard O’Riordan (Travel Instinct). All Rights Reserved
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