Lindeman Island’s $583 million revamp

The Chinese owners who bought Lindeman Island half a decade have no plans to re-open it until 2021.

But they have revealed details of their plans for a $583 million redevelopment of the island south-east of Airline Beach that was once home to the large but dilapidated Club Med resort.

The White Horse Australian Lindeman Group plans to fit out its resorts with 325 opulent rooms and some villas.

It’s all part of White Horse’s plans for a five star spa resort, an opulent eco resort and 89 tourist villas for Lindeman.

For Lindeman, White Horse is planning a conference centre, restaurants and lounges. There will be central village filled with restaurants, a bar, a nightclub, conference facility buildings, an arrival centre, shops, a sport and recreation centre and a staff village.

Services on the island will also have to be expanded. White Horse will have to install solar power generation with diesel back-up, sewage and water treatment. It will also have to upgrade the golf course, and the existing jetty with more moorings.

White Horse is also planning to build eco-tourism facilities. There will be a National Park, a Great Barrier Reef Educational Cetnre and 30 “glamping” facilities at the National Park.

White Horse, which owns 55,000 billboards across 21 Chinese cities, paid $12 million for Lindeman back in 2012.

White Horse’s Australian chief executive Paul Nyholt says operating three and four-star resorts on Queensland’s islands is challenging these days because five-star resorts in Asia and the Pacific are available at a similar price.

“To be profitable in Australia we have to charge at a certain rate,” Nyolt told Commercial News.

“We need to be five to six-star and we want to be cutting edge – that is where you can make it work.”

He expects the island will draw 30 per cent of its tourist arrivals from offshore and 70 per cent will be domestic tourists.

And the company’s Chinese-born boss William Han, plans to launch a China-wide billboard blitz promoting Lindeman Island.

by Leon Gettler, August 2^nd 2017