• Price: $145.8 million, down from a $161 million enterprise value after SeaLink Rottnest was taken out of the deal
• Seller: Kelsian Group, which is exiting Australian tourism
• Buyer: Journey Beyond (owned by Crestview Partners)
• Resorts: Kingfisher Bay Resort (269 rooms, villas and holiday houses) and K'gari Beach Resort (formerly Eurong Beach Resort)
• Also included: K'gari Explorer, SeaLink Fraser Island ferry and 4WD touring, Captain Cook Cruises, SeaLink Marina, SeaLink Tasmania and SeaLink Northern Territory
• Approvals: ACCC and FIRB cleared
• Completion: expected by the end of 2026

K'gari, formerly Fraser Island, is the world's largest sand island and a World Heritage site. It attracts visitors from around the world for its rainforest, freshwater lakes and long beaches. Development on the island is tightly controlled, which makes the existing resorts very hard to replicate.

Kingfisher Bay Resort, on the island's calmer western side, is the larger of the two, with 269 rooms, villas and holiday houses. K'gari Beach Resort, formerly Eurong Beach Resort, sits on the eastern beach and is popular with 4WD and touring visitors.

This deal is more than a real estate sale. Journey Beyond is buying the resorts together with the ferries, touring operations and cruise businesses that bring guests to them. In island tourism, controlling access and the visitor experience is as valuable as owning the beds.

The package also covers Sydney's Captain Cook Cruises and operations in Tasmania and the Northern Territory. That gives Journey Beyond a national network of experiences to cross-sell to its customers.

Journey Beyond already owns some of Australia's best-known tourism experiences. Last year it bought Ayers Rock Resort for around $300 million and in May it added the 110-room Mercure Kakadu Crocodile Hotel in Jabiru. K'gari continues the strategy of collecting iconic, nature-based destinations that are hard or impossible to duplicate.

Kelsian Group, which also operates the Ghan and Indian Pacific rail services, is exiting Australian tourism to focus on its core transport businesses. Selling the K'gari assets and related businesses frees up capital for that strategy.

Hotels, pubs and resorts have been trading strongly across Australia in 2026. Pub groups, syndicates and offshore capital are all active and the strongest interest is in assets with genuine scarcity, such as World Heritage locations, island resorts and major regional attractions. International visitor numbers continue to recover and domestic travellers keep seeking out nature experiences, which supports long-term demand.

• Scarcity is the biggest value driver. Assets in protected locations can't be replicated, so they command a premium.
• The operating business adds value. Bundling transport and experiences with accommodation creates a more valuable package.
• Approvals take time. Some deals now take months to close, so sellers need patience.
• Tourism sells on experience. Visuals, video and immersive marketing are critical for resort assets, for guests and for buyers.

Watch for completion by the end of 2026, Journey Beyond's plans to reinvest in the K'gari resorts and what happens to SeaLink Rottnest now that it has been removed from the deal.

• Real Estate Source – K'gari resorts sold for $145.8m
• Real Estate Source – Journey Beyond snaps up Crocodile Hotel