New hotel investment needed to meet forecast demand
Australian cities need new hotel investment if they are to meet forecast demand and improve occupancy, according to new Australian Bureau of Statistics accommodation figures, the Tourism & Transport Forum (TTF) said today.
The ABS’ Survey of Tourist Accommodation March 2008 shows that for the first quarter of the year, average hotel average room rates have increased by 8.7 percent despite occupancy dropping by 3 percent, leading to revenue per available room increasing by 5.5 percent.
TTF’s National Manager, Tourism Investment, Evan Hall said the new figures demonstrate a lack of adequate room supply across Australia.
“Despite a fairly lacklustre quarter in terms of demand, room rates continue to experience strong growth, particularly in hotels and serviced apartments,†Mr Hall said
“This reflects accommodation capacity constraints across Australia and a lack of new room supply.”
“While new room supply is under development in Melbourne and Adelaide, there is still insufficient hotel investment to meet forecast demand across our capital cities, especially Sydney, Brisbane and Perth.”
“In many of our major cities, we still lack the necessary investment in hotels to meet future demand.”
“The strong increase in average room rates and revenue per available room may help to improve the perceived value of hotels as an investment option, but will not necessarily act as a catalyst for new development.â€
Mr Hall said changes to planning and taxation policy were needed to provide a level playing field with commercial and residential property and capture the external benefits of tourism for the broader economy.
“Hotel investment won’t improve until planning policies and Federal and state/territory taxation measures start to remove the barriers to hotel investment and put hotel development on equal footing with other property classes such as residential investment.â€
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