Darwin Airport opens Australia’s first airport resort

Darwin Airport will get its own airport resort next week when two former ‘reimagined’ and now integrated airport hotels open as the Novotel & Mercure Darwin Airport Resort.

The milestone opening follows a A$30 million investment by the Airport Development Group (ADG), which also owns the adjacent Darwin Airport.

Darwin Airport is the northern gateway to Australia, with direct international flights from a variety of Asian ports. The ‘Top End’ is a minerals, agricultural and tourism hub, famous for its tropical outback landscapes and 65,000 year old Indigenous heritage and culture.

ADG’s visionary $30 million project has produced a remarkable transformation of the hotels, with the progressive refurbishment of existing rooms and the creation of new pool villas, suites and bungalows perfectly capturing Darwin’s tropical environment.

Previously, the two hotels had separate receptions, but now a combined reception area has been opened, along with a new 60-metre/one million litre swimming pool (one of the largest city hotel pools in Australia), poolside cabanas, children’s aquatic playground, and new poolside dining.

The newly launched resort will position itself as a premium destination venue for leisure visitors, business travellers and conference groups to the Northern Territory’s Top End.

ADGNT Hotels and Pools.

The provision of world-class resort accommodation is a key component of ADG’s Darwin International Airport 2023 Master Plan, which focuses on the significant infrastructure required to support growth in passenger numbers to between 3.7 and 5.5 million annually by 2043.

The Master Plan will guide the development of existing and proposed airport facilities and land use for the next 20 years, as an ‘aertroplis’ evolves in the 80 acres of airport land. The term aertroplis is a play on the more well known aerotropolis to reflect the airport’s location in the tropics.

The resort is being launched at a time of expansion of direct services into Darwin Airport. The latest airline to fly into Darwin Airport is Australian low-cost carrier, Bonza, which has just commenced flights from Australian east coast destinations, Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast. Singapore Airlines will also expand services to Darwin Airport with daily direct flights in 2024.

The resort is located on the lands of the Larrakia Nation, the traditional custodians of the greater Darwin area.

Indigenous engagement is an integral component of the hotels’ redesign. ADG also established an Indigenous Training Academy to develop and mentor Aboriginal employees for the hotel, airport and the wider Northern Territory tourism and hospitality sector.

A feature of the resort is the diversity of rooms available to guests as part of the 423-room inventory. New-look Novotel and Mercure hotel rooms boast sleek interior designs, and guests can also choose family suites, freestanding bungalows, and new 5-star tropical villas with their own plunge pools.

Darwin Airport Resort general manager, Chris Chaffe, says that guests arriving at the resort will be immediately immersed in the Northern Territory’s unique lifestyle, ancient cultures and stunning landscapes.

“Integrating and recognising Larrakia Indigenous culture and heritage has been an integral component of the project,” he said. “

The new resort is enriched with Aboriginal art and themes, inside and out, providing an appropriate reminder that this pioneering world-class resort is on the lands of the world’s longest-surviving culture.

“Visitors wanting to explore the Top End will be able to enjoy a complete resort experience, including an Olympic-plus size swimming pool, and a range of dining options.

“It will also provide an ideal base for visitors travelling elsewhere in the Top End. Darwin Airport is a feeder airport to a number of international destinations as well as local Territory destinations such as the Tiwi Islands, Katherine and Arnhemland, while tourism attractions such as Litchfield and Kakadu National Parks are just 80 minutes and two and a half hours drive, respectively, from the resort.”