‘Love – is it gone?’ A key question asked by hundreds of thousands of visitors to Melbourne for the International Jehovah’s Witness Convention. Held every few years, this year’s convention, hosted at Marvel Stadium in Docklands focussed on the theme ‘Love Never Fails!’. The international convention attracts tens of thousands of people from over 70 countries to converge for a 3-day convention highlighted by guest speakers and documentaries to reflect on the convention’s theme.
42,000 people attended the 1st day of the convention and numbers increased over the weekend in late November. The 50,000 stadium visitors on the final day exceeded the record number of spectators at Marvel for 2019; the Good Friday AFL crowd of 48,278. The mass baptism of over 400 people was the highlight of the second day whilst across the weekend, delegates learnt how the key theme is applied and practiced – all meanwhile being translated into excess of 5 languages included sign language. Besides visitors, over 10,000 volunteers assisted in ensuring the convention was enjoyed by all the attendees. With such a large influx of people to Melbourne, many hotels, shops, restaurants and iconic attractions were boosted with the additional tourist numbers. According to Melbourne Convention Bureau, the delegates accounted for 35,000 room nights for Melbourne’s accommodation sector and injected $60 million into the local economy. Besides the convention, guests travelled to Ballarat gold fields, Mornington Peninsula through tours coordinated by the convention.
At Waterfront Melbourne Apartments, we welcomed a few of these visitors who had arrived for the International Convention. Many reservations were for large families, staying in our 3-bedroom apartments whilst couples also arrived and enjoyed the 1-bedroom apartments. For the larger families, the fully serviced apartments were convenient for guests who brought groceries, used to prepare meals in the kitchen facilities. Many guests brought suits and formal wear and utilised the laundry and ironing facilities in the privacy of their apartment to prepare themselves for the eventful weekend. Besides international guests, many guests that stayed at Waterfront Melbourne Apartments were from Australia, some driving from within Victoria and using our secure car parking.
We look forward to welcoming these guests again for the next International Convention hosted in Melbourne in a few years’ time. Next time they come for the convention we hope they will choose to stay with Waterfront Melbourne Apartments, conveniently located a short free tram ride away from Marvel Stadium.