It may be the first major international five star hotel to open in the Victorian capital since the protracted COVID-19 lockdown but, for a city without foreign tourists, save for tennis players, the uninitiated could be forgiven for thinking that the “W” in the W Melbourne’s name might stand for “Why?”.
It could, after all, be viewed as one of the worst times, perhaps since the rise of mass tourism, to open such a hotel anywhere, not least Australia, with its closed international border.
Nevertheless, the 294-room W Melbourne is receiving its first guests this week. And, of course, the answer to the “why” question is that many hotels were already under construction prior to the pandemic…