Tourism boost with weaker Australian dollar – NTA

#australia

LOWER AUSTRALIAN DOLLAR A POSITIVE FOR TOURISM

The Survey of Tourist Accommodation for the year ending June 2014, released today by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, shows some mixed results, according to the industry body the National Tourism Alliance (NTA).

The Survey measures activity in 4,200 accommodation properties across Australia.

“In the year ending June 2014, the figures show that while average occupancy of rooms across the country was slightly down on the previous year, the average room rate charged saw a slight increase,” said NTA CEO Juliana Payne. “The lower occupancy probably reflects a slowdown of activity in the resource States.”

“There is still a huge amount of activity going on in the accommodation sector, with well over 53.5 million room nights occupied nationally, generating nearly $9 billion in room revenue,” Ms Payne “Hotels drive a lot of economic activity: they are big buyers of local goods and services, and they employ hundreds of thousands of people”, Ms Payne said.

“With the Australian dollar coming down, It’s important that the industry is placed to take advantage of that; Australia needs to increase its marketing efforts nationally and internationally to attract the visitors who spend money and create jobs here.”