A portfolio of some of the world's leading resorts, including the 791 room Ayers Rock Resort near Uluru and Queensland's award winning Lizard and Bedarra Islands, are up for sale. 

Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels, David Gibson, CEO Asia Pacific and Craig Collins, Managing Director, have been retained exclusively by The GPT Group to market for sale the Voyages Hotels & Resorts portfolio in one line.

GPT has listed the amazing portfolio of tourism assets for sale to concentrate on its core investment portfolio, funds management and development opportunities.

"Following GPTs announcement to the Australian Stock Exchange last month, Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels will commence a global marketing campaign for the sale of Voyages during September," said Mr Gibson.

GPT own and through its Voyages management platform operate iconic resorts such as Ayers Rock Resort, Lizard Island, Bedarra Island, El Questro Homestead and Wilderness Park, Wrotham Park Lodge and many more.  "With unparalleled locations to Australia's natural icons such as Uluru and the Great Barrier Reef, many of the destinations on offer have significant barriers to entry for competition," said Mr Gibson.

Voyages will appeal to domestic and international investors alike, as well as international operators seeking to gain significant market exposure through such a large offering.

Whilst the portfolio may be acquired with vacant possession of management, the Voyages management platform offers a solid capability for ongoing management of the portfolio. "In addition, the Voyages management platform has excellent expansion potential and is capable of being immediately scaled up to create a resort management company to provide third party management globally," said Mr Collins.  He added, "The ability to acquire a fully developed management platform is an excellent opportunity for owner/operators or owners wishing to develop a management business."

"Backed by world acclaimed iconic resort brands, the portfolio is strongly diversified, in terms of the property locations, size and business mix," said Mr Gibson.  Surplus land at Dunk and Bedarra Islands also offers outstanding development potential for resort expansion or residential style uses.

Despite a recent barrage of negative press, the outlook for Australia's tourism market remains positive. "The Tourism Forecasting Council (TFC) expects that international visitors to Australia will increase at an average rate of 4.4% per annum between 2007 and 2017 to reach 8.7 million," said Mr Gibson.  This compares with growth of 2.7% between 1997 and 2007.  Mr Collins added, "International tourism looks set for a growth spurt from 2009 with the introduction of new-generation aircraft such as the Airbus A380 and Boeing 787 easing current capacity constraints."

Expansion in aviation capacity is also timed to coincide with the launch of a promotional campaign based on the upcoming Baz Luhrmann movie, Australia, late in 2008.  The epic romantic adventure was filmed on location across Australia's spectacular landscape and compliments many of the destinations where Voyages has a presence (some scenes were filmed at Voyages El Questro Wilderness Park). "The film and associated promotional activity is expected to reach hundreds of millions of people worldwide and encourage more people to travel to Australia while also stimulating interest in domestic travel," said Mr Gibson.