Sydney WorldPride 2023 pushed hotel performance to pre-pandemic levels
Room rate reached its peak on Saturday, February 25, the day of the Mardi Gras Parade, coming in at $414, while occupancy reached 95.4%
Sydney WorldPride 2023 drove the market’s hotel average daily rate (ADR) and revenue per available room (RevPAR) above pre-pandemic levels, while occupancy remained slightly below 2019, according to preliminary data from STR.
During the 17-day event, Sydney’s highest occupancy levels were recorded on Saturday, March 4 at 95.8 percent and Saturday, February 25 at 95.4 percent.
Throughout the period, daily occupancy remained above 80 percent with only three days falling below that mark.
Matthew Burke, STR’s regional director for Pacific, Japan & Central South Asia said: “WorldPride was held for the first time in the Southern Hemisphere with Sydney hosting a series of events across two weeks to commemorate LGBTQIA+ pride and celebrate contributions made.
“The festival generated enormous interest with hotels reporting consistently high occupancy and room rates.”
When compared with the matching 17-day period in 2019, Sydney occupancy was 2.3 percent lower while ADR (more than 25.7 percent) and RevPAR (more than 22.1 percent) were each up by double figures.
In dollar terms, accommodation operators saw a room revenue lift of $43 million from 2019.
“Room rate during the period reached its peak on Saturday, February 25, the day of the Mardi Gras Parade, with the metric coming in at $414, while occupancy reached 95.4 percent.
“That night was always anticipated to produce a high occupancy level, with STR’s Forward STAR data indicating a spike in occupancy on the books visible as early as November 2022.”
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