Restrictions limit Queensland’s hotel performance during school holiday periods

Queensland’s destinations have seen lower hotel performance amid border closures and the underlying travel uncertainty for key source markets like Sydney, Melbourne, and even international markets like New Zealand and China. The impact of restrictions is also extending to September/October school holidays as shown in comparison with the similar period earlier this year.

In this analysis of STR’s forward-looking data, we focus in on three Queensland regions to show the specific impact for the Sunshine Coast, the Gold Coast and Queensland North (which includes Cairns & Port Douglas).

Sunshine Coast

The September/October school holiday showed the impact of interstate border closures with Melbourne and Sydney.

Gold Coast

The performance gap is even larger for the Gold Coast due to greater reliance on share of interstate and international travellers.

Queensland North

Although Queensland North’s peak season comes during winter months, there is still a considerable difference between the two holiday periods.  

Starting the holiday period at a lower baseline for what is mostly a fly-to destination, attracting higher occupancy is a much larger challenge for Queensland. Additionally, as we’ve noted in a previous analysis regarding booking shifts, there is greater reliance on short-lead conversions, which are more influenced by weather.

 Conclusion

It is no surprise that restrictions around Australia are restricting hotel performance in Queensland, even during usually popular school holiday periods. Although some accommodation properties are seeing quite strong demand during the September/October school holiday, many properties are struggling because of a lack of guests from their usual feeder markets. Beyond feeling pessimistic around levels of future bookings, hoteliers are also feeling concern as to what level of bookings will materialize into actual business, which is dependent on border opening timelines.

For more information about our occupancy on the books data, check out Forward STAR