New Hotels Spring Up In Canberra

Canberra's hotel sector is set to record strong growth in coming months.

Canberra’s residential and office markets have recorded strong growth in recent months and the hotel sector is set to do the same. National reports are predicting both occupancy and room rate growth, while the local industry has welcomed an “explosion” of new hotels in the capital.

Colliers International’s latest hotel research and forecast report entitled Destination Australia showed that the Canberra market experienced good growth over the past financial year, with occupancy boosted by hosting six matches in the Asian Soccer Cup in January.

According to Colliers’ report, Canberra’s hotel market has seen occupancy rates increase from the high-60s in 2014 to the low-to-mid-70s in 2015.

The report also noted that the ACT hotel market continues to be tightly held with just two major transactions in 2014 – Abode Woden and Ibis Styles Eagle Hawk. The only major transaction so far this year has been the Brassey Hotel, which was acquired by Doma Group.

Several new hotels have opened over the past 12 months including five-star, 213-room The Avenue Hotel in Braddon. Australian Hotels Association ACT general manager Brad Watts says the new hotels represent confidence in the local market, however government support is required to continue attracting tourists to the city.

There has been an explosion of new hotels in Canberra with around 400 new rooms opening in the past month.Brad Watts

“There has been an explosion of new hotels in Canberra with around 400 new rooms opening in the past month including Little National (120 rooms), Abode Narrabundah (86 rooms) and the Vibe Canberra Airport Hotel (185 rooms),” Mr Watts says.

“Currently, there are almost 6000 rooms in the local accommodation sector, compared with more than 5200 at the same time last year. There remains strong private sector interest in further growing the ACT’s accommodation and hospitality market, which is exciting.”

Mr Watts says this investment has created employment and much-needed economic growth in the hospitality and tourism sector.

“However, on the downside, the new rooms have opened in a relatively short timeframe, so when demand is quiet, there is more competition causing a dilution factor as hotels are competing for a smaller slice of the pie,” Mr Watts says.

“To address this challenge, there needs to be an even greater focus on attracting and hosting large-scale events and having more government investment to draw tourists to Canberra, especially to boost the leisure market.”

Mr Watts says, while the private sector is investing heavily in tourism and accommodation, the industry needs the ACT government to provide more investment aimed at attracting more visitors to the capital.

“The ACT hotel industry has welcomed a new tourism marketing partnership program to boost the local visitor economy through innovative partnership projects,” Mr Watts says.

“There has been a strong appetite from the local visitor economy to work together to promote Canberra through this funding scheme.”