Australia’s western capital was up 25 per cent year on year in revenue per available room (RevPAR) to $249.24, up 18.5 per cent in average daily rate (ADR) to $277.29 and up six per cent in occupancy to 89.9 per cent, notching up the highest hotel occupancy in capital cities across the country.
A major reason for the strong performance was three international sporting events which drew international and interstate visitors – the Bledisloe Cup filled Optus Stadium, while two combat sports events, the UFC and WWE, filled Perth’s RAC Arena across multiple nights.
Accommodation Australia’s report showed hotel occupancy across the three events ranged from 91.8 per cent to 94.4 per cent.
Perth is likely to see another boost to performance in the next report which will include the opening Ashes series, also at Optus Stadium, for which corporate entertainment suites sold out early.
Commenting on the Ashes impact on Perth, Australian Hotels Association (WA) CEO Bradley Woods, who is also chair of Business Events Perth, said current Perth hotel occupancy was running at 96 to 98 per cent.
“This surge of visitors will deliver a major economic boost, with restaurants, pubs and bars scaling up staffing and resources and expecting strong trade across the weekend with the Ashes and West Fest activations. Hotels and venues have boosted rosters, extended trading where appropriate and coordinated transport and security planning to ensure a seamless visitor experience,” Woods said.
“Based on comparable events, we anticipate tens of millions of dollars in visitor expenditure across accommodation, food and beverage.”
Nationally the Accommodation Australia report saw Sydney second to Perth in terms of occupancy, at 85.1 per cent, but leading the revenue and rate figures, recording ADR of $303.41 and RevPAR of $258.07.
The Gold Coast recorded a 3.8 per cent increase in ADR to be close behind at $299.46 for ADR and $224.78 for RevPAR.
Another noteworthy performance was Melbourne’s hotel occupancy, up 5.2 per cent to 79.2 per cent, although it was still behind Hobart hotel occupancy at 81.8 per cent.
In other metrics, the two southern cities were neck and neck during this period: Hobart recording an ADR of $225.54 against Melbourne’s $227.87 and RevPAR of $184.48 against Melbourne’s figure of $180.36.
Although Brisbane hosted four national conferences during the month and achieved over 80 per cent hotel occupancy on 14 nights, overall occupancy rates fell three per cent to 78.2 per cent.
Meanwhile Canberra jumped 7.7 per cent to 80 per cent occupancy, its ADR was up 6.3 per cent to $207.71 and RevPAR rose more significantly by 14.4 per cent to $166.07.
