Goldie’s post-games glow eclipses national hotel gain
The Gold Coast was Australia’s top performing hotel market in 2018, its hosting of the Commonwealth Games touted as a major driver for growth last year.
While the national picture showed lower growth than in 2017, Australian hotels on average recording 1.2 percent revenue per room growth compared with 2.8 percent the previous year, the Gold Coast recorded strong RevPAR growth.
According to CBRE’s Hotel Market View report for Q4 2018, flow-on benefits of the international sporting event saw average daily rates rise by 7.6 percent during the year to $202.
RevPAR grew by almost ten percent and international visitor numbers remained high following the Games, up 4 percent for the year.
CBRE senior research manager Danny Lee said: “The 2018 Commonwealth Games provided a welcome shot in the arm for the Gold Coast’s tourism industry, with increased exposure to offshore markets driving up international visitation to the region by 4 percent for the year,” Mr Lee said.
“China, New Zealand and Japan accounted for 55 percent of hotel visits during the period, while New South Wales, Queensland and Victoria took the lion’s share of domestic tourism at 81 percent of hotel stays.”
More than 900 rooms will be added to the Gold Coast over the next three years, with the increase likely to put the brakes on its stellar growth this year.
Nationally, CBRE predicts hotels will benefit from a weaker Australian currency in 2019, which will make Australia an attractive destination for internationals while discouraging Aussies to holiday overseas.
“Given our economic forecasts, we expect bias towards further AUD depreciation in 2019,” says the commercial real estate group’s report.
“Over the past decade, any year with AUD/USD currency depreciation of 10 percent or more was typically followed by a year of (on average) 5 percent growth in hotel nights occupied by international visitors; thus we expect more international visitors in 2019.
“International visitor nights are forecast to grow by 6.2 percent p.a. over the next three years according to Tourism Research Australia.”
Aside from the Gold Coast, Canberra was the other big winner in 2018, experiencing RevPAR growth almost four times that of the national average.
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