Gay resort out on its own

One of the country’s biggest hotel management companies has severed ties just eight months into a 20-year contract with Australia’s newest gay and lesbian resort. Earlier this month Queensland’s Liberty Resort parted ways with the Constellation Group, ending a 20-year agreement announced in a joint Constellation and Liberty Group press release in June 2002. Constellation Hotel Group general manager Murray Wright said Liberty, which opened in September 2002, was facing a period of low revenue but that was not why the companies parted ways. Mr Wright said the group was employed by Liberty to manage the resort. We were employed by Liberty to help set the business up, but after a period of review Constellation decided the guys at Liberty will be better off going it alone. Any business goes through a period of low revenue at the beginning. Liberty director Alastair Brown denied there had been a 20-year agreement between the two organisations, and stressed Liberty was on solid financial ground. Constellation group was there to get the thing operational, was put in to get the management systems and infrastructure working properly and to get us in a stable position in the travel industry, Brown said.