The Cricket World Cup and the Asian Cup are just two major sporting events that benefited the hotel industry enormously around Australia in the first quarter of 2015.

The economic benefits are expected to have reached in the multi-millions of dollars as more than 100,000 tourists visited Australia amidst nine weeks of sporting action.

Moreover, the expected TV audiences for both were anticipated to topple more than two billion, further exposing Australia to new potential tourists.

That’s on top of the recently completed Australian Open (tennis) and Formula 1, and newly commenced 2015 Super Rugby, AFL and NRL seasons.

With events played around the country, hotels of all shapes and sizes can count on an increase in guests and therefore extend an opportunity to promote their customer loyalty programmes.

Tourism Research Australia’s (TRA) International and National Visitor Survey reports, released in December 2014, revealed that international visitors grew at 8% over the year-to-date September 2014, the fastest growing rate in a decade, while domestic visitor nights rose by 7% for the same period, the fastest growth rate in two decades.

But, Australian hotel owners and operators realise they shouldn’t be relying on international sporting events or fluctuations in our currency to boost accommodation numbers and revenue, instead recognise the need for building brand loyalty. So that no matter what is happening in Australia, people will always choose to stay at their hotels.

Successful brand loyalty programmes combined with innovative marketing of services to individuals and corporate groups can ensure that hotels are always growing an increased share of business. Furthermore, by establishing strong brand loyalty relationships with frequent individual travellers, combined with corporates who are looking to stage conferences, events and meetings, hotel operators can gain great reward from the services they offer, and moreover increase owners’ returns.

Most people are conservative by nature and would prefer to stay somewhere that they know and can trust, so if hotel operators can establish a strong rapport with any frequent individual travellers and corporate groups they should grow their market share accordingly.

Combined with a falling Australian dollar, a continued increase in tourism is forecasted for 2015 and beyond, with Chinese tourists becoming the most lucrative, spending more and staying longer, than any other international tourist.

A lower Australian dollar should also encourage locals to travel more domestically.

There are many positives for the hotel industry in the future. Every hotel in Australia can market their additional services to increase additional spend from their visitors, whether they be local or international. Hotels can tailor packages to individual and corporate needs that will not only increase brand loyalty but also their occupancy rates.

Now is the time to capitalise on growing visitor numbers.

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