By Martin Kelly|2020-06-12T13:25:55+10:00June 12th, 2020|Daily News|
In good news for local tourism operators, the Centre for Aviation (CAPA) predicts Australian domestic air capacity will reach 55% of 2019 levels by the October school holidays and 74% just before the Christmas break. CAPA’s Chairman Emeritus, Peter Harbison said Australia is well positioned to suppress the “first wave” More ...
By Martin Kelly|2020-07-14T15:32:53+10:00June 10th, 2020|Daily News, Short Term Rental News|
The Airbnb gravy train is off the rails due to impact of COVID-19. Investors continued to shift their short term rental properties to the long term market in NSW, Australia’s largest state, through May with vacancies in inner Sydney hitting an 18-year high, “a trend that’s likely to continue.” The More ...
By Martin Kelly|2020-07-13T15:54:14+10:00June 9th, 2020|Daily News|
Respected economic commentator Alan Kohler has slammed the Federal Government for its short-sighted fiscal abuse of tourism businesses on two fronts – first by shutting the industry down and then not providing any targetted support. “The Federal Government began shutting down Australia’s tourism industry on February 1, when it banned More ...
By Martin Kelly|2020-07-14T15:33:53+10:00June 5th, 2020|Daily News, Short Term Rental News|
Vacasa, the largest vacation rental platform in North America, has a emerged from a dark period with good news – an USD108 million fundraising. Financing was led by existing investor Silver Lake – which recently invested in both Airbnb and Expedia. More …
By Martin Kelly|2020-07-14T15:34:23+10:00June 4th, 2020|Daily News, Short Term Rental News|
Holiday property operators and websites are reporting encouraging bookings for the upcoming Queen’s Birthday long weekend in NSW, Victoria and South Australia. More …
By Martin Kelly|2020-07-13T16:06:48+10:00June 3rd, 2020|Daily News|
Thredbo ambassador Torah Bright – smoking! Thredbo has become the first Australian ski resort to reveal its pricing for season 2020, increasing the cost of a daily lift ticket by 20 per cent to $159 a day. Sounds outrageous at a time of hardship and unemployment for many, More ...
By Martin Kelly|2020-07-14T15:35:16+10:00June 1st, 2020|Daily News, Short Term Rental News|
Late autumn sunset at Narrabeen, a popular tourist spot on Sydney’s northern beaches. A surprise last-minute decision by Queensland to encourage travel within the state means the entire east coast of mainland Australia including NSW, ACT and Victoria is open for tourism as of today, June 1. More ...
By Martin Kelly|2020-07-14T15:36:45+10:00May 28th, 2020|Daily News, Short Term Rental News|
Global short term rental bookings through Airbnb and Vrbo are rebounding strongly after hitting rock bottom in early April – approaching pre-COVID levels, according to AirDNA. More …
By Martin Kelly|2020-07-04T20:36:48+10:00May 27th, 2020|Daily News|
Dransfield Hotels and Resorts believes increased Australian domestic travel due to closed borders could more than compensate for the dearth of international tourists caused by COVID-19 travel restrictions. “Estimated domestic replacement in hotels could be considerably higher than the loss of international nights in both the cities in both the More ...
By Martin Kelly|2020-07-13T16:25:57+10:00May 26th, 2020|Daily News|
STR reports that April 2020 was the worst month ever in terms of performance for Australian hotels. "The absolute occupancy, ADR and RevPAR levels were the lowest for any month in STR’s Australia database," the company said. Occupancy: -72.7% to 19.9% ADR: -33.1% to AUD119.87 RevPAR: -81.7% to AUD23.85 "Melbourne More ...
By Martin Kelly|2020-07-04T20:37:29+10:00May 14th, 2020|Daily News|
The spectacular and sudden immolation of CEO Jayson Westbury’s career speaks to bigger issues at the Australian Federation of Travel Agents, which looks badly out of touch with the modern world. Westbury resigned yesterday after saying TV host Tracy Grimshaw “needs to be given a firm uppercut or a slap More ...
By Martin Kelly|2020-07-13T16:10:21+10:00May 7th, 2020|Daily News|
How can you offer refunds when you’ve already spent the money or need every available dollar just to survive? That appears to be the dilemma facing some of Australia’s leading travel companies with the industry coming under sustained attack for its “read the fine print” approach to clients during the More ...
By Martin Kelly|2020-07-14T15:37:48+10:00March 20th, 2020|Daily News, Short Term Rental News|
Accommodation operators around the world are getting hit hard by cancellations from consumers who either can’t travel because of government restrictions or simply want to stay close to home because they’re anxious about catching COVID-19. More …
By Martin Kelly|2020-03-17T10:33:44+10:00March 17th, 2020|Daily News|
Qantas Group will cut international capacity by 90 per cent and domestic capacity 60 per cent until at least the end of May due to the severe restrictions on travel wrought by the COVID-19. Here is a summary of today’s announcement. More …
By Martin Kelly|2020-07-13T16:22:49+10:00March 13th, 2020|Daily News|
Flight Centre Travel Group today announced it will close up to 100 “under-performing stores” and withdrew its profit forecast due to the uncertain impact of coronavirus, which is now hitting bookings hard. More …
By Martin Kelly|2020-03-10T10:17:39+10:00March 10th, 2020|Daily News|
Qantas reducing capacity, withdrawing eight A380s from service. Qantas Group has taken decisive action to reduce costs because of slumping passenger demand caused by the coronavirus. In a major strategic shift, Qantas today announced it is withdrawing eight of its largest aircraft, the Airbus A380, from service and deploying smaller More ...
By Martin Kelly|2020-07-14T15:39:43+10:00March 9th, 2020|Daily News, Short Term Rental News|
Airbnb, Booking, Expedia Group and TripAdvisor have agreed to share their short-term accommodation booking and guest data with the European Union (EU). Commissioner Thierry Breton said the data will help with “evidence-based policy” planning and transparency for the short-term leasing sector, critics including local government claim is destroying the social More ...
By Martin Kelly|2020-02-14T10:00:30+10:00February 14th, 2020|Daily News|
Google’s “have your cake and eat it too” approach to business – selling ads to companies while operating competing products – has been blamed by two leading online travel companies, Trivago and TripAdvisor, for significant revenue drops. Both companies said current industry dynamics, including increased competition from new player Trip.com More ...
By Martin Kelly|2020-02-12T09:07:28+10:00February 12th, 2020|Daily News|
Australian hotels have been severely impacted by the coronavirus pandemic and related bans on Chinese travellers. More …
By Martin Kelly|2020-02-10T10:52:45+10:00February 10th, 2020|Daily News|
Here's the lift queue at Vail last week after a powder dump. At US$209 for a day ticket, not exactly value for money. But odds are that many of these punters would have bought the annual Epic Pass, which covers all 37 mountains and urban ski parks owned by parent More ...
By Martin Kelly|2020-02-10T10:02:23+10:00February 6th, 2020|Daily News|
Kudos to South Australia for its bush fire recovery and clarification campaign #BookThemOut, which kicked off more than two weeks ago. Still waiting for my home state of NSW - which has actually suffered more damage - to do something. What's happening Destination NSW? Update: on Feb 8 Destination NSW More ...
By Martin Kelly|2020-02-04T08:41:25+10:00February 3rd, 2020|Daily News|
A lot of people rave about skiing in Japan. I won’t be one of them. More …
By Martin Kelly|2019-12-13T08:43:43+10:00December 13th, 2019|Daily News|
Qantas today announced engine reliability was a major factor in choosing the Airbus 350-1000 over the Boeing 777X for Project Sunrise – regular, non-stop commercial flights from the east coast of Australia (Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne) to London and New York – should it proceed. More …
By Martin Kelly|2020-01-09T08:03:24+10:00December 11th, 2019|Daily News|
Researching this story for The Hotel Network was a real eye opener. I learned of one Road Warrior who booked an incredible 168 stays last financial year - that's more than three a week. Meanwhile, there's generational change with Millennials on the charge and hotels rolling out new accommodation models More ...
By Martin Kelly|2019-12-09T11:21:42+10:00December 9th, 2019|Daily News|
We punch above our weight. That was the underdog mantra underpinning last week's Tourism Australia briefing in Sydney.
By Martin Kelly|2019-12-11T08:58:23+10:00December 9th, 2019|Daily News|
Now that Expedia Group Chairman Barry Diller (pictured) has sacked CEO Mark Okerstrom and CFO Alan Pickerill, taking control of the company, what will be the first thing he does? I think it will be to cut costs. More …
By Martin Kelly|2019-10-31T08:02:45+10:00October 31st, 2019|Daily News|
Call it the Airbnb or Uber moment for holiday parks. Disruption has finally arrived in the sector – but with a twist. Established operators are facing increased competition from lightly or unregulated competitors, that are often free and operated by the councils they pay rates to. As you can imagine, there More ...
By Martin Kelly|2019-10-29T15:21:05+10:00October 29th, 2019|Daily News|
WTF is going on at Virgin Australia? Lovely staff, erratic product. For mine, VA is the Forrest Gump of airlines – as in, life’s like a box of chocolates “because you never know what you’re gonna get”. More …