Hervey Bay Holiday Accommodation …
… do we really need any more?
Tourism Queensland has just released its Tourist Accommodation Data Sheet for the year ended June 2009 and if you’re in the tourist accommodation business on the Fraser Coast it doesn’t make for very encouraging reading.
On the Fraser Coast – that’s Hervey Bay and Maryborough – there are 94 hotels, motels, serviced apartments, holiday flats, units and houses providing 1,059,069 room nights throughout the year. The actual occupancy rate for the period covered in the data sheet was 546,764 and while that’s an increase of 0.8% on the previous 12 months it’s still only an occupancy rate of 51.6%.
While that occupancy rate generated $58 million in revenue it does leave you wondering whether we really need any more accommodation here in Hervey Bay for quite some time.
October 30th, 2009 at 8:56 am
I am of the view that until such time as average occupancy rates hit 70%, no more units should be built. Likewise until we encourage more and diverse work to our region, we should slow down the building of houses.
To saturate the market in any field is counter productive, just look at the wine industry.
October 30th, 2009 at 9:32 am
I’m with you 100% on that one Jon – I feel very sorry for all the little investors who have bought units in all the new apartment complexes. At such low occupancy rates they must be really struggling now.
Stuart
October 30th, 2009 at 3:34 pm
I have to agree with both Jonangel and Stuart’s comments. There are no more visitors coming to town, they are just spread thinner. Four and a half years ago, we had occupancy of 48%, over the next two years we would increased it to 56%, then the last two years we have dropped back to 52%.
In that time frame there has been a 35% increase in beds avaliable ,it could even be more. I can’t imagine the banks loaning to developers who build units/apartments, unless more than 60% are sold, so that should put a stop to any new devlopements. The council has done very well out of the past developements and has encouraged it, now we have an abundance of apartments for sale, with very little movement. In this downtime it would be good if the council could clean up the Esplanade, to take advantage and showcase our best asset. “The Beach” prehaps thats another debate.
November 14th, 2009 at 5:24 pm
I can’t help wondering if the figures are taking into account the trend for retirees relocating to Hervey Bay. A lot of our newest ‘retired’ residents choose to buy apartments and units rather than houses. Hervey Bay is still a very strong growth area and still growing in popularity. At the very least it keeps our building industry healthy.