AUD fall starting to affect travellers’ hotels costs
The average price of a hotel room around the world rose by two per cent during the first six months of 2013 compared to the same period last year, according to the latest Hotels.com Hotel Price Index (HPI). The rise, although relatively small, maintained a trend seen since the start of 2010 of slowly-increasing rates, with average prices around the world now close to their 2006 levels before the global financial crisis.
In the Asia Pacific region, the current slump in mineral resources has hit Western Australian accommodation prices, with Perth recording its first fall in rates for several years, down four per cent but still the highest in the country.
China is Australia’s fastest-growing tourist source market and its arrivals helped lift results in other areas. Sydney saw its average rate rise 15 per cent and Melbourne added five per cent, while rates in Brisbane were flat.
An increase in visitor rates to New Zealand over the period of the report helped Wellington record a five per cent gain in its average, but Auckland fell five per cent.
Asia was the only region to see a fall in hotel prices, with a two per cent drop in the first half of 2013. A number of individual cities in the region performed well but the depreciation in value of the Japanese yen and the Indian rupee, coupled with a fall in the number of inbound visitors to China, contributed to this result.
Latin America registered its strongest result in more than two years with a seven per cent increase in hotel prices. Helped by the strengthening US economy, North America and the Caribbean outperformed the global average with increases of three per cent and five per cent respectively.
In the build-up to the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympic Games, the world’s most expensive city for Australian travellers in the first half of the year was once again Rio de Janeiro, Brazil at an average of A$312 a night - a rise of three per cent on the same period last year. Despite the depreciation of the real, Brazil ranked as the second most expensive country for Australian travellers behind Monaco.
Occupancy rates across the US were up in the first six months of 2013, which contributed to a rise in prices paid by Australian travellers in 15 of the 18 US cities included in the HPI, although rises were not as sharp as in previous reports. The steepest rises were in the west, with Anaheim, home of Disneyland in California, up 18 per cent to A$160, Honolulu up 11 per cent to A$250 and San Francisco up 10 per cent to A$216.
Source: MICEBTN, 12 September 2013
