Darwin hotel occupancy down 40 per cent on last year, with low demand from interstate travellers amid COVID-19 crisis
DARWIN’S hotel occupancy is down 40 per cent compared to the same time last year, painting a grim picture for the Territory’s tourism industry — halfway through its peak season.
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DARWIN’S hotel occupancy is down 40 per cent compared to the same time last year.
This is the grim picture for the Territory’s tourism industry — halfway through its peak season.
Occupancy is sitting at about 35 per cent, and some hotels are mothballing their accommodation completely.
Hospitality NT chief executive officer Alex Bruce said the decision by hotels to not open their accommodation showed how little demand there was from interstate tourists and business travellers.
“The RevPAR, which is the revenue per available room, is down a whopping 60 per cent, so the situation is pretty sick,” Mr Bruce said.
“We thought we were going to see light at the end of the tunnel but, with all that is happening in Victoria and New South Wales, that’s not going to happen quickly.
“We now don’t know how long this dark tunnel is.
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“The accommodation guys have been deemed too big by the NT government for a lot of the supports into our sector, and we feel like the federal government has deemed them too big a problem to deal with.”
Mr Bruce said while it was positive people were crossing the borders into the NT, losing airline capacity had hit hard.
“Losing flights out of Brisbane and Adelaide, and with Melbourne and Sydney off the table and Perth residents being told that if they come up here they will not be welcomed back, means it is a long, slow road for accommodation guys,” he said. “We’d like to see if there is more that could be done to support them. Every healthy person coming across the border is welcomed and will help fill the caravan parks.
“However, it was the people flying in and staying in the hotel accommodation — the tourists, the business travel, the government travel — that isn’t happening.”
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Mr Bruce wants the government to look at additional support it could provide.
“We really do want them to look at what support they can provide to accommodation and others in our sector that are still doing it tough,” he said.
The government was contacted for comment.
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