January 15, 2010Brisbane hotels saw revenue per available room drop by a whopping 9.2 percent in the September 2009 quarter as operators struggled to stimulate demand, according to the
Tourism & Transport Forum (TTF).
TTF Executive Director Brett Gale says the cities most reliant on business travel recorded the biggest falls.
“Sydney, Brisbane, Perth and Melbourne have all seen revenue per available room (RevPAR) plummet compared to the same quarter in 2008,” he says.
Hotels in Australia’s capital cities saw an average 8.2 percent drop in revenue while average room rates slipped 6.3 percent.
“This clearly shows that accommodation providers responded to falling demand by cutting their margins.”
Compared to the rest of the country, cities generally fared the worst.
On average, city RevPAR fell 8.2 percent compared to the September quarter 2008 while the rest of the country posted a drop of 4.1 percent.
“The one exception is Cairns where the downturn in arrivals, from Japan particularly, forced operators to drop room rates by 9.9 percent, which saw RevPAR plunge 15.7 percent,” Gale says.
“2009 was a very poor year for the Australian tourism industry, with falls in international arrivals and domestic travel and soft conditions mean the industry continues to suffer,” he says.
“We hope to see a recovery in demand as 2010 progresses.”
