Hoteliers, stand aside: New stats from Tourism Research Australia show it’s not a question of if but when your mantle as the top provider of accommodation to international tourists will be passed to the thousands of Aussie individuals and businesses who are marketing their short-term rental play through the likes of Airbnb and HomeAway.

The share hotels, resorts and motor inns have of the international visitor market to Australia has collapsed 63% over the past 12 years, according to the latest International Visitor Survey from Tourism Research Australia. 

Back in the old days – 2005, to be precise – traditional operators accommodated 18% of international travellers, but by 2017 that share in a growing and increasingly competitive market had dwindled to just 11% (29.2 million visitor nights).

How can this be, you ask, when certain hotel markets such as Sydney are growing fast in terms of capacity and yet can barely keep pace with the influx of international visitors, 25% of who are now Chinese!

The issue is that sure, there’s growth, but it’s like comparing a cheetah to a house cat.

In 2017, there was 1% overall growth in the hotel/resort sector at a time when the number of international visitors to Australia rose 6%.

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