Adele Labine-Romain, national tourism leader at Deloitte said, “The corporate travel segment will clearly be critical in terms of the recovery. Markets, where corporate travelers represent a relatively larger share of demand will face significant challenges, particularly as so many businesses big and small, have settled into people connecting via technology.”
The report predicts domestic overnight trips to increase to 113 million trips by the end of this year, provided COVID-19 remains in check domestically and the vaccination rollout goes undisrupted. The same growth route expects to see domestic overnight trips reach 125 million by the end of 2022, and 134 million trips by 2023.
In spite of the pandemic’s overwhelming impacts on tourism, more than 5,000 new hotel rooms hit the market in 2020, with an additional 32,000 new rooms to be added to the country’s hotels, 40 per cent of which are expected to open in 2022.
“With plenty of new stock, and even more in the pipeline, hoteliers will face considerable headwinds, with average occupancy rates across the major markets covered in the report forecast to remain considerably lower than in recent years, but recovering to 95 per cent of 2019 occupancy levels in the final year of the forecast horizon,” Ms. Labine-Romain said.
However, not all cities are expected to bounce back at the same rate. According to the Deloitte report, Brisbane and Perth are possibly to see occupancy rates return to 2019 levels by 2023, while the Gold Coast, Adelaide, Hobart, North Queensland and Western Sydney are expected to recuperate slower.
Tags: Tourism recovery, Deloitte
