APEC

If John Howard is smart he would avoid calling an election for as long as possible, if order to put space between APEC and some of his biggest fans. Such is the level of discontent from small businesses after the costly disruption to Sydney’s CBD.

A Circular Quay restaurant owner bitterly complained, "After what Howard did to my business this week there’s no way I’ll be voting for him again." A mid-City coffee shop owner estimated a $10,000 hit from APEC. Indeed, many restaurants simply closed their doors due to the lack of bookings. Other small business passengers reported a 60% loss of trade.

Two American passengers had attended Australia’s premier mining expo at Olympic Park. They were completely unaware of APEC and somewhat disappointed at the reduced number of major exhibitors, making their visit a marginal exercise. It would appear the Aussie mining sector were kicking more lucrative goals in APEC meetings.

As for the evening taxi business I carried few extra passengers related to APEC. With some 1500 media attending one wonders where they went at night. Brothels, apparently. Whilst the City jumped on Thursday night ahead of the long weekend, on Friday and Saturday nights the City was a ghost town. Fortunately though, booming Sunday business from the Airport averted another ordinary night for cabs.

Also last night I ventured into the security zone hotels to feed off the rapidly departing visitors. One business couple from an APEC country literally exited a successful meeting with their Prime Minister and jumped into the cab for the Airport.

They had only arrived on Saturday evening in order to secure a business agreement. As this was the only chance to catch their leader, they attributed the successful mission to his relaxed and receptive condition, no doubt a result of his working holiday.

Thus, in my opinion, the big winners from APEC were major businesses from the Asia Pacific region, Sydney brothels and (potentially) ABC's The Chasers. The losers were small CBD businesses and thwarted protesters. Obviously, though, there were larger APEC results which must owe some of their success to Sydney’s hospitality.

Comments

[Juffy]

' A Circular Quay restaurant owner bitterly complained, "After what Howard did to my business this week there’s no way I’ll be voting for him again." '

Probably someone who voted FOR Howard for the last 3 elections because he got a tax cut in the budget immediately before the election. Ahhh, how fickle the loyalty of the masses.

[Lee]

Good will come from what occurred in Sydney, even if it will all be down the track a little...and by that time those small business owners will have forgotten last week as they reap the benifits from the deals and visitors to their establishments.

You can't please all the people, all the time....no matter what.

[steve at the pub]

Half of me sympathises with the business owners at having a bad week.

The other half is gloating because it gives these city slicker business operators just a glimpse of what it is like on the land. However one week of no business cannot compare with an entire year of work being topped off by total crop failure.

[Sprite]

When I went into the CBD on Friday it wasn't exactly deserted, but there was hardly anyone there compared with usual. It actually made for a pleasant shopping trip! But I felt very sorry for shop owners. There was absolutely nothing stopping people from going shopping, but they'd stayed away because they were practically threatened by the government and police. So the shops lost money for no reason.

[Andy]

If you live and operate in a major city like Sydney, you need to take the good with the bad. Given all the extra business brought in by events like the Olympics, Mardi Gras, World Youth Day next year etc I dont think its too much to ask for businesses to deal with one bad weekend. Its not like they werent prewarned. And Im sure on a larger scale, our economy will benefit from the weekend.