Backyard blitz: Accor reaps the benefits of Australian staycations
With international borders shut, interstate travel and staycations have become extremely popular and led Australians to further explore their own backyard.
As such, with more Australians staying within Australian borders, local hotels have experienced a post COVID bounce back.
This is particularly the case in regional centres.
Many Aussies are choosing to book hotels in regional and leisure locations such as Byron Bay, Sunshine Coast, Noosa and Port Douglas.
Accor’s Pacific venues are reaping the rewards of this trend, putting Accor Pacific at the top of the revenue pile among the group’s global portfolio.
“Within our sector, the Australian economic recovery has been stronger than we have seen anywhere else in the world,” Accor Pacific chief executive Simon McGrath said.
“Each month is better than the last month. It’s rebounding. Compared to the rest of the world, year to date, we’re probably 25 per cent down on 2019 revenues. That’s positive,” he said.
The local hotel industry saw occupancy drop to 10 per cent due to the pandemic, so the recovery for local hotels is a blessing for the industry.
Accor is now starting to recoup staff losses and Mr McGrath has stated that, with the larger city hotels next in line to recover, the Group will once again be in a strong position.
Before the pandemic hit, Accor had 21,000 staff members. This number fell to 6000 during the peak of the pandemic, but it is now back up to approximately 13,500 employees.
Accor has plans to open eight hotels in Melbourne over the next two years, with the Mövenpick Melbourne on Spencer opening next month.
Mr McGrath is now waiting for certainty on national borders and for international borders to open for a full recovery to begin.
“I acknowledge that it’s difficult with health issues but what’s the plan?” he said.
“We’re at the front of the curve at the moment. If we’re overly cautious and we want to sit here and hibernate and be safe for the rest of our lives, we will fall behind. I think it is a real risk to our economy.”
Irit Jackson, 19th May 2021
