JUNE KEY FIGURES

Accommodation with 15 rooms or more		Mar Qtr 08	Jun Qtr 08	Mar Qtr 08 to Jun Qtr 08	Jun Qtr 07 to Jun Qtr 08
Trend
	Takings from accommodation ($m)	1 969.0	2 014.2	2.3 %	9.3 %
	Room occupancy rate (%)	65.1	65.1	0.0 pts	-0.8 pts
Seasonally Adjusted
	Takings from accommodation ($m)	1 966.9	2 023.3	2.9 %	10.6 %
	Room occupancy rate (%)	64.8	65.5	0.7 pts	0.1 pts
Note: Hotels, motels and serviced apartments

ACCOMMODATION TAKINGS, Australia

ROOM OCCUPANCY RATE, Australia

JUNE KEY POINTS


ACCOMMODATION TAKINGS

• In June quarter 2008, the trend estimate of total accommodation takings for hotels, motels and serviced apartments with 15 or more rooms increased by 2.3% to $2,014.2 million compared with March quarter 2008.
• Over the same period, the seasonally adjusted estimate increased by 2.9% to $2,023.3 million.

ROOM OCCUPANCY RATE

• The trend estimate of the room occupancy rate for hotels, motels and serviced apartments with 15 or more rooms remained at 65.1% for June quarter 2008 compared to March quarter 2008.
• The room occupancy rate trend for hotels, motels and serviced apartments with 15 or more rooms had decreased for three consecutive quarters but has remained stable in the June 2008 quarter.
• The seasonally adjusted estimate increased 0.7 percentage points to 65.5% for June quarter 2008 compared with March quarter 2008.

NOTES

FORTHCOMING ISSUES

ISSUE (QUARTER)	Release Date
September 2008	6 January 2009
December 2008	26 March 2009

ABOUT THIS ISSUE

This issue presents results from the June quarter 2008 Survey of Tourist Accommodation (STA) for the following categories of establishments:

• licensed hotels and resorts with facilities and 5 or more rooms
• motels, private hotels and guest houses with facilities and 5 or more rooms
• serviced apartments with 5 or more units
• caravan parks with 40 or more powered sites
• holiday flats, units and houses of letting entities with 15 or more rooms or units
• visitor hostels with 25 or more bed spaces.

DATA NOTES

As advised in the December quarter 2007 issue of this publication, Autoregressive Integrated Moving Averages (ARIMA) modelling has been incorporated into the seasonal adjustment process for the majority of the tourist accommodation series and all series have a changed treatment of the trading day component. As a result of these changes the seasonally adjusted and, to a lesser extent, the trend series have been revised. For further information, see paragraphs 22 and 23 of the Seasonal Adjustment section of the Explanatory Notes.


INQUIRIES

For further information about these and related statistics, contact the National Information and Referral Service on 1300 135 070.


SUMMARY COMMENTARY


ORIGINAL

Hotels, motels and serviced apartments

This summary contains key findings for original estimates. While trend and seasonally adjusted data are only available for hotels, motels and serviced apartments with 15 or more rooms, original estimates have two additional data series comprising hotels, motels and serviced apartments with 5 to 14 rooms and 5 or more rooms.

Original series are impacted by seasonal variations and irregular or non-seasonal influences and comparisons between quarters should be made with caution.

Accommodation takings

In June quarter 2008, accommodation takings were $1,908.2 million for hotels, motels and serviced apartments with 5 or more rooms, comprising $1,838.3 million for hotels, motels and serviced apartments with 15 or more rooms and $69.9 million for hotels, motels and serviced apartments with 5 to 14 rooms.

Accommodation takings in June quarter 2008 for hotels, motels and serviced apartments with 15 or more rooms were highest in New South Wales ($580.1 million) and Queensland ($465.5 million).

The June quarter 2008 average takings per room night occupied were $144.53 for establishments with 5 or more rooms. This was heavily influenced by hotels, motels and serviced apartments with 15 or more rooms which contribute 96.3% to total takings, and had an average takings per room night occupied of $147.37. The average for 5 to 14 room establishments was $95.94.

Room occupancy rate

The room occupancy rate for hotels, motels and serviced apartments with 5 or more rooms was 60.7% in June quarter 2008. For hotels, motels and serviced apartments with 15 or more rooms, the room occupancy rate was 62.1%, while demand for 5 to 14 room hotels, motels and serviced apartments was lower, as reflected by a room occupancy rate of 43.5%.

Room nights occupied

Room nights occupied were 13.2 million in June quarter 2008 for hotels, motels and serviced apartments with 5 or more rooms. For hotels, motels and serviced apartments with 15 or more rooms, room nights occupied were 12.5 million in June quarter 2008, while for establishments with 5 to 14 rooms, room nights occupied were 0.7 million.

New South Wales contributed the highest proportion (30.9%) of occupied rooms for hotels, motels and serviced apartments with 15 or more rooms, followed by Queensland at 27.1%.

Average length of stay

The average length of stay in June quarter 2008 for hotels, motels and serviced apartments with both 5 or more rooms and 15 or more rooms was 2.2 days. For establishments with 5 to 14 rooms, the average length of stay was 1.8 days.

Queensland (2.6 days) reported the longest average length of stay for hotels, motels and serviced apartments with 15 or more rooms, followed by Western Australia (2.4 days). The shortest average length of stay was in Tasmania (1.9 days).

Star grading

In June quarter 2008, the room occupancy rate for five-star hotels, motels and serviced apartments with 5 or more rooms was 70.4% compared with 29.7% for one-star. For hotels, motels and serviced apartments with 15 or more rooms, the room occupancy rate was 70.6% for five-star establishments compared with 30.6% for one-star establishments.

In the 5-14 rooms category, three-star (48.0%) establishments had the highest room occupancy rates in June quarter 2008, compared with one-star establishments at 28.0%.

In June quarter 2008, the average takings per room night occupied for five-star hotels, motels and serviced apartments with 5 or more rooms was $243.17 compared with $73.17 for one-star. In the 15 or more rooms category, the average takings was $243.21 for five-star establishments compared with $82.11 for one-star establishments.

For establishments with 5 to 14 rooms, five-star establishments had the highest average takings per room nights occupied of $233.49, compared with one-star establishments at $55.20.

Caravan parks, holiday flats, units and houses, and visitor hostels

Accommodation takings

In June quarter 2008, accommodation takings for caravan parks were $229.3 million. New South Wales ($70.4 million) had the highest accommodation takings for all caravan parks for June quarter 2008, contributing 30.7% of the total.

Short-term caravan park takings were $188.5 million in June quarter 2008 which was 82.2% of total caravan park takings.

Accommodation takings for holiday flats, units and houses were $115.2 million in June quarter 2008. Real estate takings accounted for 21.4% of total holiday flats, units and houses takings, the rest being for other letting entities.

For visitor hostels, accommodation takings were $54.1 million in June quarter 2008.

Occupancy rate

The site occupancy rate for all caravan parks in June quarter 2008 was 51.1%. Short-term caravan park occupancy was 47.4% and long-term caravan park occupancy was 76.1%.

For holiday flats, units and houses, the unit occupancy rate was 39.3% in June quarter 2008.

The bed occupancy rate for visitor hostels in June quarter 2008 was 50.1%. Western Australia, Queensland and Northern Territory had the highest bed occupancy rates for visitor hostels in June quarter 2008 being 59.2%, 58.2% and 53.9% respectively.