Region events fire up room boom joy
VISITORS are struggling to get into Townsville hotels, with the city’s mid-year events calendar in full swing.
Hotel Grand Chancellor Townsville manager on duty Cody Morris said she‘s seen occupancy rates hit a high during the last couple of months, with a significant decrease in vacancy rates.
“Townsville seems to be hosting more and more events by the looks of things,” she said. “I’ve been at the hotel for a bit over two years and this was the busiest year I’ve seen so far … a lot more active than we’ve seen in previous years.”
Ms Morris said the Townsville Show, the North Australian Festival of Arts, the Supercars and a range of sporting events had had a lot to do with the hotel boom.
“The Townsville Show in previous years hasn’t been that large,” she said.
“There have been quite a lot of sporting events. Basketball league, NRL games, quite a few sail events, a lot more water-based events.”
She said families tended to make a holiday out of the Supercars, arriving at the hotel on the Monday or the Tuesday prior.
Ms Morris said Townsville’s Groovin the Moo festival usually marked the start of the peak period, the visitors from across Australia heading North and needing a place to stay.
Predominantly catering to corporate guests, Ms Morris said the hotel saw a spike in leisure guests during the past month.
“Last weekend was unexpected; it’s been good for the hotel … we’ve been at 90 to 100 per cent over the past week,” she said.
The Ville Resort-casino CEO Michael Jones agreed Townsville’s hospitality industry was seeing a spike this mid-year period.
“Since the floods the hotel has been very busy,” he said.
“We’ve been operating consistently, around 90 per cent occupancy.
“We were full all last week, which might have been to do with the sporting events on in town and the number of conferences.”
Mr Jones said the resort was already fully booked for the Supercars weekend, with a number of dignitaries staying at the hotel.
“For us, the encouraging sign is we are filling mid week, which hasn’t happened for a while,” he said.
“Prior to the floods, even late last year, we still had occupancy rates mid week.”
He said it was clear locals were getting out and enjoying themselves on the weekends.
“People are still staying in town; by the time the weekend comes around they want to go out, eat out, or do something a bit different,” Mr Jones said.
Mercure Townsville general manger Laura Ousby said July and August would be very strong months for Townsville’s hospitality market.
“We have full occupancy this Friday and Saturday,” she said.