Occupancy rate expectation “highest in decades”
In its latest Tourism and Hotel Outlook Deloitte Access Economics forecasts hotel room occupancy rates will grow to 68% – the highest in decades.
Deloitte Access Economics’ Lachlan Smirl said, “Demand in capital cities in particular has grown and will continue to grow, strongly,” he said. “But the stock of rooms, or room nights available, has grown just 2.8% over the last four years.
Demand is projected to continue to outstrip growth in supply with demand expected to grow by 2.3% a year with room nights available to grow by just 0.7% a year. It’s surprising therefore that room rates and occupancies are on the up.”
“We forecast regional occupancy rates to reach 60% by the end of 2015 compared with 80% or higher in many of the mainland capital cities.
“Among other things this reflects the continued shift in the nature of the visitor economy, with international travellers and the business segment becoming more prominent, and their hotel stays being heavily geared towards capital city destinations,
Mr Smirl said, “On forecast trends, international visitor nights are projected to overtake domestic visitor nights by 2018. This will be a first and a milestone which underscores the increasing importance of international visitors to the Australian tourism industry. Since 2000, spending by international visitors has grown from 16 per cent of total tourism expenditure to 24%– that is, by 45%. And visitors from China are a key driver. They are coming in greater numbers; they are staying longer; and they are spending more per night.”
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