19th February 2021
A recent article by ABC News examines the health of the hotel industry. With the rollout of COVID 19 vaccines, there is a feeling of optimism that the world can slowly roll around to a version of normal. Talk of travel bubble opening gives some much-needed hope to the crippled tourism industry. However, there are obstacles ahead for tourism and hotel operators A report from IBISWorld estimates recovery will take 5 years. With JobKeeper coming to an end, international border openings likely to be many months away and cautious consumer confidence, many operators in the hotel industry are bracing for their next wave.
International tourism makes up around one-third of all bookings in hotels, even higher for CBD hotels. Together with business travel and conferencing, international tourism is a significant earner for the hotel industry. The new demand for hotel quarantine was not the silver bullet one might expect. Hotels have to mitigate unreliable flight schedules, a low room rate prescribed by the government, and bad press around hotel quarantine leaks.
Overall, industry revenue is expected to decline at an annualised 13.5 percent over the five years through 2020-21, to $6 billion. IBISWorld senior industry analyst Nathan Cloutman said “Australia is far away from many countries and quite expensive to travel to, so it will limit how quickly the industry recovers”.
The recovery will be helped at least by the Australian dollar, which is expected to stay low over the same time period, attracting inbound tourism.
To read the full article, head to the ABC new page: