Game, set and match – sports tourism aces Australian hotel occupancies
The commercial benefits delivered by the tennis followed a bumper December courtesy of the Ashes cricket.
As the turnstiles clicked over to one million at the Australian Open tennis championship, the only people happier than tennis administrators at Melbourne Park were the city’s hoteliers.
Melbourne’s CBD hotels are on track to record the highest ever room nights sold in January, breaking the record set in January 2025. And with Melbourne boasting more rooms than any other city centre in Australia – a 24 per cent increase since January 2020 – that result was indeed welcome.
The commercial benefits delivered by the tennis followed a bumper December courtesy of the Ashes cricket.
JLL Hotels & Hospitality
This was reflected clearly in the occupancies achieved at Sofitel Melbourne On Collins, with significant increases on previous Boxing Day Test matches in 2023 and 2024, despite massive attendances last year for the Indian tour.
Even with the Ashes Test match lasting just two of the five scheduled days, Sofitel Melbourne On Collins was able to grow RevPAR across the five nights, with 20.8 per cent revenue growth compared to 2024.
Elsewhere, the Ashes impact was just as profound. According to CoStar, a leading global provider of online property analytics, Perth hotel occupancies peaked at 96 per cent during the first Test, with the highest ever ADR ($409.36) and RevPAR ($393), with year-over-year growth of 46.9 per cent and 50.3 per cent, respectively.
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In Adelaide during the third Test, occupancies were pushed up by 20 percentage points compared to normal, and in Brisbane RevPAR reached $406.19 on one of the nights.
The final Test was held in Sydney, driving metrics to their highest levels on Sunday, 4 January with an occupancy rate of 79.4 per cent and ADR of AUD320.70.
It was a great way for the industry to both end a year and start the new year, but it does raise the question whether we are depending too much on sport to fill rooms in Australia?
The impact of sport on tourism was reflected clearly in the latest Australian Bureau of Statistics inbound figures.
In November, 80,090 short-term visitors from the UK arrived in Australia, up 20 per cent from 68,880 in November 2024. The simple explanation was The Ashes, which may have disappointed fans looking for a competitive series, but not hoteliers and tourism businesses that enjoyed above-average November and December occupancies.
The injection of UK visitors helped increase the number of short-term visitors to 831,270 in November, up from 815,910 in November 2019 and 695,360 in November 2024.
Fortunately for hoteliers concerned about relying too heavily on Bazball to drive demand, there was also strong gains from New Zealand, China, Japan and South Korea, despite significant depreciation of their currencies against the Australian dollar in the past five years.
Particularly encouraging is the resurgence in the Chinese holiday market, which grew to 74,500 in November 2025, up almost 20,000 compared to the same month in 2024, though the figure is still well below the 101,390 short term arrivals in November 2019.
The question, though, is whether the sugar hit that sporting events such as the British and Irish Lions and The Ashes delivered to the Australian hotel sector in 2025 can be sustained in 2026?
For instance, will 30,000 Kiwis cross the Tasman to watch their cricketers play during the 2026-27 summer? In reality, it is unlikely, despite the New Zealand cricket team winning successive Test and ODI series in India. The New Zealand series next summer will mean a total change in pace for hotel occupancies in the four cities where Tests are being played.
There are also doubts whether the Rugby League World Cup and the Women’s Asian Cup football will attract large numbers of international and interstate visitors, though Melbourne’s hotels are set for another fuel-injected month in March this year when the Formula 1 Grand Prix drives into town.
Sport has never been more productive for Australian hotels, but it will be interesting to see how a relatively ‘normal’ year pans out for the industry, given the new supply that has come into the market over the past five years, notably in Melbourne.
Building up other major events will be critical in the key cities. News that the much-hyped SWSX tech and cultural festival would be discontinued for 2026, following the NSW government’s withdrawal of funding, signalled that it hadn’t delivered the visitor numbers and expenditure hoped for.
The SXSW organisers cited challenging market conditions across the globe for major events, and while Destination NSW indicated it was still committed to supporting major events, there has been little evidence of large-scale events outside sport to build the events calendar in the year ahead.
The operating environment will require a change of focus to more traditional flows of business such as corporate, meetings and business events, while building on the success achieved in attracting higher-yielding leisure travellers.
Fortunately, indications are that hotel operators are entering 2026 with a sharper focus on yield management, cost control and elevated guest experiences. Overall, the outlook for 2026 is one of measured growth, resilience and opportunity.
