| This week's GLOBAL HOTEL NETWORK (SM) REPORT focuses on
Melbourne, Australia. Rodney Eve, Associate Director, Knight Frank Expotel
(Sydney), reports:
Melbourne is Australia's second largest city with a
population approaching 3.3 million. As the capital of the State of
Victoria, the city is both the administrative and commercial centre of the
State as well as being an important influence nationally in the areas of
business, finance, fashion and commerce.
Through recent years, Melbourne has established itself
as the Events Capital of Australia and now hosts nine major international
events on an annual basis including world class sporting tournaments and
cultural festivals. With around one million international visitors during
the 1998/99 year producing a total of 17.97 million visitor nights,
Melbourne is one of Australia's major tourist destinations. Using the
Tourism Forecasting Council (TFC) growth rates, this figure could rise to
20.1 million during the current year and 26.4 million by 2004. The TFC
also anticipates that international visitor arrivals to Australia will
reach 6.151 million by 2004 generating a total of 24.7 million hotel room
nights.
A recent survey nominated Melbourne as the world's third
most popular international venue for meetings and conventions. Extensive
promotion of the Melbourne Exhibition & Convention Centre and other
major venues produced impressive results with some 30 to 40 international
meetings to be held during 2000. Many of these venues do not have
accommodation attached. The importance of this market cannot be
underestimated as it is recognised that conference delegates are among the
highest spending sector of the visitor market.
On the domestic front, evidence suggests that Melbourne
has experienced above average growth in demand during recent years,
although the average length of stay has remained constant at three nights.
Results for 1998 reveal a total of 6.13 million visitors producing 18.55
million visitor nights with almost 30% of those nights being spent in
hotel or motel accommodation. It is hoped that these figures will continue
to grow as a result of ongoing tourism promotion by Tourism Victoria and a
new $16 million national campaign which will be launched shortly
encouraging Australians to spend time holidaying in their own country.
Whilst it is also expected that growth will resume in
the Asian inbound market, and flow on from the marketing and conduct of
the Sydney Olympics will see good results during the current year, of
continuing concern is the cost of travel within Australia and how this
will be affected by the introduction of a Goods and Services Tax (GST)
from July. Additional carriers such as Virgin entering the domestic market
may help to soften these increases through competitive pricing but it is
very much a "wait and see" situation.
Accommodation data for hotels, motels, guest houses and
serviced apartments is collected by The Australian Bureau of Statistics
from all tourism regions throughout Australia. Figures for the Melbourne
region which contains 94% of the city's accommodation, show that at the
close of 1999 there were 17,656 rooms available. This indicates an
increase of 10% on the 1998 room supply. During the same period, the
number of rooms sold increased by 11% resulting in a market wide occupancy
for the region of 67.8%. The comparable Average Room Rate per occupied
room for the twelve month period declined by $1 to $130.79.
Knight Frank Expotel monitors the performance of a
basket of CBD located 3,4 and 5 star hotels representing some 6,600 rooms
in 27 properties. During 1999 these hotels produced an average room rate
of $161.33. RevPar was $116.51. Overall occupancy was 72.2%. For the
previous year, 1998, a similar basket, comprising 26 hotels , achieved a
slightly higher occupancy of 74.6%. Average room rate for the twelve
months was $166.90 and RevPar was $124.60.
Generally, Melbourne has a stable market, however, a
close watch must be kept on the growth of room supply. The major new
property to commence operating in 1999 was the Park Hyatt Melbourne with
240 keys. Opening in the current year is The Westin Melbourne with 262
keys. Whilst operators have expressed a desire to be represented in the
Melbourne market -- particularly if they are operating in Sydney -- no
definite major new projects are currently in the pipeline and
opportunities to acquire hotels with vacant possession which would allow
re-branding are very restricted.
There are only a limited number of hotel rooms (336) and
serviced apartments (181) certain to enter the Melbourne market during the
current year, and a further 530 hotel rooms proposed for 2001.
GLOBAL INSIGHT: According to Global Hospitality
Resources, Inc.'s 6th annual Asia Pacific Hospitality Industry Study, the
five leading hotel companies ranked by rooms open in Australia are: Choice
Hotels International, Accor Asia Pacific (including acquisition of All
Seasons Hotels), Bass Hotels & Resorts (including acquisition of SPHC
Group), Best Western International and Rydges Hotels & Resorts.
Copyright (c) 2000 Global Hospitality Resources, Inc.,
San Diego, CA USA www.globalhotelnetwork.com
All rights reserved. Reprinted with permission.
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GLOBAL WEB SITE RECOMMENDATIONS
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Australian Tourist Commission www.aussie.net.au
Australia - Industry Science Resources www.isr.gov.au
Australian Hotels Association www.aha.org.au
Melbourne Convention & Marketing Bureau www.mcmb.com.au
Date: June 2000 www.globalhotelnetwork.com
GLOBAL HOTEL NETWORK (SM) REPORT SPONSORS
PACIFIC ASIA TRAVEL ASSOCIATION (PATA)
How can you increase your share of lucrative travel
business
to the Americas from Asia and the Pacific? Register today for
the 15th Annual PATA-VUSAMART. Our marketplace /
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Please register before July 25 to qualify for advanced
appointment scheduling.
For more information, visit our Web site at http://www.pata.org.
Or e-mail vusamart@pata.th.com.
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