The challenge for Australian hotels: finding enough rooms for Chinese tourists
Chinese tourists are flooding into Australia, and that’s great news for the nation’s tourism and hospitality industries.
Certainly Australia has attracted a record number of Chinese tourists. According to the latest figures, some 1.1 million Chinese travellers visited Australia last year. And just in January and February, more than 300,000 have already come here.
What’s attracting them are more flights from Qantas, 10 year visas and a better exchange rate.
But some hotels are saying there simply aren’t enough hotels rooms to keep up with the demand.
Matt Bekier, CEO of Star Entertainment Group, one of Australia’s largest largest gaming and casino companies operating properties and resorts in Sydney and Brisbane, said the inadequate hotel supply might even see Australia losing market share.
He said Chinese travellers are now booking trips faster than some hotels can keep up,
“It’s fascinating that while we’re high-fiving each other about how great we are in getting the Chinese tourists to come to Australia, we’re losing market share,” Bekier told CNBC.
He said Star was already investing in building up its hotel capacity.
“If you don’t have the hotel product to accommodate people, you can’t monetize the opportunity,” he said.
He said it was important for hotels to make sure they met expectations of Chinese tourists.
“If you look at Chinese tourists, many of them are spending in the four and five-star category for accommodation and that’s where we actually need the capacity,” he said. “We need to get a lot more product up to that level where we’re competitive with the best product in Hong Kong, London or New York.”
And the tourists keep pouring in.
According to Deloitte, Australia’s hotel occupancy rate is set reach 71.3 per cent by 2018. It will go even higher in Sydney, the major gateway for Chinese tourists, reaching more than 90 percent.
Deloitte forecasts room nights sold growing three per cent per year during the next three years, outpacing hotel supply growth by 1.4 percentage points.
by Leon Gettler, May 8th 2017
