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STR’s free Hotel Survey Program: benchmarking for local hoteliers
STR collects performance data from properties participating in their free Hotel Survey Program, including data on their rooms available, rooms sold, and room revenue. They aggregate this data, allowing them to report on market performance as a whole and more specialised groups. In Australia, STR draws data from more than 1,600 properties. Worldwide, their network of participating accommodation providers is over 61,000. STR is also responsible for the Australian Accommodation Monitor (AAM) program, which has replaced the Survey of Tourist [...]
Letter from the President: July 2019
Why the number of Byron’s day-visitors from South East Queensland will continue to grow Annual ‘day-visitor’ numbers to our shire hit a record 1.1 million late last year. The research summary can be found on our Research page. Day-visitors are the biggest contributor to our shire’s visitor numbers. Our thriving visitor economy welcomes about 2.24 million visitors p.a. for comparison, Noosa welcomes around 2.3 million visitors p.a. Byron’s visitor numbers consist of three separate demand drivers: 1. ‘Domestic Drive Market’ [...]
Letter from the President: June 2019
How busy is Byron really? – a statistical approach to the topic A number of media outlets have recently claimed that Byron Bay is experiencing ‘over-tourism’. Most inevitably reference the UK tour company Responsible Travel who compiled a list of global towns experiencing over-tourism based on ‘news reports’, with no regard for the underlying statistics. All articles mentioning over-tourism in our shire inevitably include a mention of our short-term holiday rental situation and a quote from a local councillor [...]
Sustainability and collaboration at the 2019 Destination Byron Tourism Symposium
The 2019 Destination Byron Tourism Symposium (June 7, Elements of Byron) may have kicked-off in outer-space, but the day’s core message was firmly rooted right here on the ground. Sustainability and collaboration were themes that ran through all ten presentations, from the crowd-favourite ‘Top 10 Travel Trends’ right the way through to Byron Shire Council’s approach to tourism engagement. When it came to sustainability, the potential effects of over-tourism on the environment was a hot topic. In his presentation, [...]
What has driven Byron’s property market?
With a population of 34,500 people and a median house price of $987,500 (as of December 2018), Byron Bay is Australia’s most expensive city. The table above shows the values of houses and units in Byron Bay. Through the first quartile, prices are significantly higher than the state average. What has driven Byron’s property market? Byron Bay has averaged double-digit growth every single year for two decades, with median house prices increasing by an average of 10.1 per cent over [...]