The impacts of Cyclone Alfred have been far reaching with the hospitality industry significantly affected by mass cancellations, according to the latest CoStar STR data.
Speaking exclusively to HM, STR Regional Director – Asia Pacific ex China, Matthew Burke, reported a +50% decline in occupancy across South East Queensland and Northern New South Wales.
“Leisure locations have been particularly hard hit,” Burke said, revealing March 11 occupancy versus the same day last year was down 38% on the Gold Coast, -42% on the Sunshine Coast and -60% for the Northern Rivers region.
“Brisbane is showing signs of resilience with potential recovery demand with occupancy across the start of this week down less than 10% in Brisbane Centre,” he added.
STR anticipates a quicker return to normal trading for Brisbane and Toowoomba, driven by corporate travel and recovery efforts.
“Leisure destinations, with more discretionary demand, potentially face a longer recovery,” Burke said.
“Encouragingly, Easter forward occupancy remains unaffected for now.
“We’re closely monitoring booking trends. We have already seen destinations launch their disaster recovery plans to shore up existing demand and manage perceptions to reality.”
Prior to Cyclone Alfred’s arrival, medium term occupancy on the books for each market compared with prior year was tracking between 1 and 3 occupancy points higher than last year, according to Burke.
“The short-term impact is real, the challenge is how quickly can ‘normality’ be returned at the speed operators and the region can take,” he said.