It can’t have escaped the notice of many people living in England that the national cricket team have won the Ashes in Australia for the first time in 24 years. Not only that, but they've won it convincingly, beating Australia by an innings three times and dominating in almost all of the tests.
Long-term England supporters are celebrating cautiously, after spending year after year watching England batting collapses instigated by a far superior Australian team. Although England have won the last two Ashes series at home, they’ve found that winning them abroad is more of a challenge because of the Australian team’s familiarity with their home turf. After winning at home in 2005, England lost every single match in the following 2006/2007 series.
The Ashes provide one of sport’s great international rivalries, yet they are just part of a long, interwoven history that is as often co-operative as it is competitive. Australia and England share a language and have numerous cultural ties; now, as Australia rapidly grows in importance as a business destination, these ties should provide the foundation for a business relationship that is rapidly getting stronger.
Two members of SilverDoor staff have visited Australian cities over recent months, to ensure that we can provide business travellers staying there with the accommodation that most suits their needs. Following Joanna Cross’s trip to Sydney in November, our Head of Business Partnerships, Stuart Winstone, recently visited Perth – another of Australia’s vibrant, thriving urban centres. It was also, of course, the site of the third test of the recent Ashes series.
Perth is the capital of the state of Western Australia and its prosperity is closely linked to that of the surrounding area. Mining is a particularly strong business in the state and SilverDoor regularly do bookings for major corporations who work in the industry. Stuart said: “Western Australia is booming as its natural resources are in high demand. Perth is therefore seeing a lot of development and is the fastest growing Australian state capital.”
Perth is well placed to benefit from south-east Asia’s growing importance as a business destination, yet it can also work with Europe more easily than the rest of Australia. “Perth benefits from being on the same time zone (GMT+ 8) as Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Hong Kong, Beijing and Shanghai”, Stuart explained. “It’s also the only Australian city that can do business with Europe during their normal working day.”
At SilverDoor we are rapidly expanding our property profile across Australia and a number of new properties in Perth will be added to our website over the coming months. Apartments we currently offer in the city, all of which Stuart visited on his trip, include Adina Apartment Perth (pictured), Quest West End and Citadines St Georges Terrace Apartments.
