Australian Hotel Sector

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Tourism industry gets a festive boost
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Greg Hawkins, managing director of The Star Sydney, says the 625 hotel rooms on offer were full during December. Picture: Renee Nowytarger




[Image: 3c195ab176ca7fed3921bb1181b96355?width=650]
Greg Hawkins, managing director of The Star Sydney, says the 625 hotel rooms on offer were full during December. Picture: Renee Nowytarger


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Corporate Australia is winding down for the year, but with tourism hitting its annual peak over the festive season it is a revenue-boosting period for the likes of The Star Sydney, airlines and major airports.

December is traditionally Australia’s peak tourism inbound month and on average contributes about 12 per cent of arrivals for the calendar year.
It has already been a strong start to the season for Sydney Airport, which clocked its busiest ever day on Saturday, December 19, with more than 50,000 passengers passing through Terminal 1.
Qantas also rates December as one of its busiest months and this year it will carry more than 2.2 million customers around the globe and across the country during the Christmas period, which is not only a boom for international tourists, but also domestic.
Domestic tourists are driving demand at The Star Entertainment Group’s Sydney complex and 4000kg of prawns, 25,000 oysters, 850kg of strawberries, 3500 bottles of champagne and 175kg of Wagyu beef will keep the local punters jolly as they ring in the New Year.
At The Star’s signature complex in Sydney, December is its peak period and during the month visitation at the integrated resort tracks about 15 per cent above normal monthly figures.
The complex has about 4200 staff across the business and on peak days over this period 3000 of them will be rostered on.
Greg Hawkins, managing director of The Star Sydney, said about 90 per cent of visitors over this period were domestic tourists and the 625 hotel rooms on offer were full during December.
He said there is a spread of demand across gaming, hotels and the 11 restaurants and 13 bars. Over the period, gaming revenue will be about 10-15 per cent higher and restaurant revenues 20 per cent higher than non-peak months.
Mr Hawkins said the bulk of the monthly increase was in the second half of December and New Year’s Eve was the peak 24-hour period with about 54,000 people heading through the doors of The Star complex as 2015 comes to an end.
For Australia, arrivals from markets like Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Britain, continental Europe and North America typically peak in December.
Tourism Australia managing director John O’Sullivan said December was traditionally the country’s strongest month for international visitor arrivals.
“Particularly from traditional European markets such as the UK for whom Australia’s near perfect weather at this time of year proves irresistible as they look to escape the doom and gloom of a northern hemisphere winter,” he said.
“Although we won’t see the final numbers officially published for a few weeks, most of our commercial partners are reporting strong bookings. It should be a great round-off to what has been an exceptional year for Australian tourism, with record arrival numbers and also spending.”
Sydney Airport’s busiest day ever recorded on December 19 passed the previous record clocked on January 3 this year, when 49,500 passengers passed through Terminal 1.
The airport expects a significant number of passengers through its terminals over the Christmas period and in early January. About 150,000 people a day, including staff and people meeting and greeting passengers, usually pass through the airport during this time.
A Qantas spokeswoman said Australians loved to take an extended holiday in December and January with many this year using the extra time to travel overseas for a white Christmas in the US and Canada. She said others had also opted to enjoy a beachside retreat in Bali or Phuket or chase adventure and visit family and friends in New Zealand.
“We have also seen a growing number of families spending their holiday time within Australia with travel continuing beyond the New Year period,” she said.
“The Gold Coast, Hobart, Darwin and Byron Bay are set for the biggest increases in visitors compared to last year.”
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  • Jan 8 2016 at 5:02 PM 
     

  •  Updated Jan 8 2016 at 5:27 PM 


Tourism boom to drive record Australian hotel investment in 2016

[img=1022x0]http://www.afr.com/content/dam/images/1/m/x/0/5/b/image.related.afrArticleLead.620x350.gm1m91.png/1452234469205.jpg[/img]The 913-room Sheraton Four Points at Darling Harbour, Sydney, is the city's largest non-gaming hotel.
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by Larry Schlesinger

Australian hotel investment sales are predicted to surge to more than $4 billion in 2016 as the tourism boom brings in new investor groups from the US, UK and Europe to compete with Asian investors for trophy assets and big portfolios.
CBRE Hotels director Wayne Bunz said he expected another "record year of hotel investment" in 2016 with appetite spreading beyond the top performing Sydney and Melbourne CBD markets to leisure hotel markets such as Cairns and the Gold Coast
"It's only the second week of January and I already have $100 million of hotels in due diligence," Bunz told AFR Weekend.
Last year was another record year for hotel investment. CBRE recorded $3.87 billion of hotel sales across more than 80 transactions, including the sale of flagship luxury hotels such as the Westin Sydney and Sydney Hilton to Asian interests. This was 50 per cent up on the $2.55 billion in hotels sales reported by Savills in 2014, also a record.
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Driving it all has been the growth in overseas and domestic tourism on the back of the weaker Australian dollar, which has seen luxury hotel occupancy rates touch 90 per cent in Sydney and Melbourne and room rates surge above $300 a night, according to STR Global.
Michael Simpson, Savills managing director of hotels for Australia and New Zealand, said a wider pool of global buyers competing for the same pool of assets would drive up hotel values and tighten yields in 2016.
"We are starting to see the strong re-emergence of traditional older school investors from the US, UK and Europe who want to own hotels in Australia," Simpson said.
These include US private equity giant Blackstone, who alongside Hong Kong's Gaw Capital is weighing up a bid for the Australian hotel-dominated $1.4 billion Ascendas Hospitality Trust portfolio, but many others as well.


"The cost of debt is falling while hotel earnings are going up so I still see growth in hotel prices in 2016, though perhaps not at the meteoric rate of the past two to three years," Simpson said. He added that the weaker Australian dollar – down four per cent since December 31 – made Australian hotels more attractive to Asian and US investors.
Simpson said hotel portfolios would be the most sought by offshore investors driven by "further consolidation at the big end of town". 
"The likes of Blackstone don't get too excited about one asset. They need scale to make a deal worthwhile. Spending one to two billion does not scare them at all," he said.
Apart from Ascendas, other hotel portfolios up for grabs this year include M&L Hospitality's $1.5 billion Australian and New Zealand hotel arm, which includes the country's biggest hotel, the 913-room Sheraton Four Points at Darling Harbour, and the 369-room Swissotel Sydney.

Also hitting the market in the first quarter of the year, through Savills, will be the 269-room five-star hotel component of Cbus Property's $1.25 billion mixed-use development at 447 Collins Street.
Other big hotels expected to sell this year include the Hilton Melbourne South Wharf being offloaded by Host Hotels and the Plenary Group through JLL with expectations around $250 million, and the 280-room Docklands hotel project on Collins Street being offered by Lendlease.



Read more: http://www.afr.com/real-estate/tourism-boom-to-drive-record-australian-hotel-investment-in-2016-20160107-gm1m91#ixzz3wr3B7sd3 
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