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Business Conditions Survey: Traveller accommodation industries
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The business outlook of Canada's hotel operators for this final quarter of 2008 continued to be less optimistic relative to the business they had during the same period last year.
About 47% of hoteliers expected the number of room nights booked to be lower than they were in the fourth quarter last year, while 44% anticipated lower occupancy rates. In contrast, 10% expected increases in both areas.
However, this outlook was a slight improvement over results from the summer quarter of 2008. At that time, 51% of hoteliers anticipated a lower number of room nights booked, and 49% anticipated lower occupancy rates for the third quarter.
For the fourth quarter, 10% of hoteliers anticipated an increase in the number of corporate travellers, whereas more than one-third expected a decline in corporate business.
Likewise, 34% of hotel operators expected their employees would be working fewer hours compared with the 10% who anticipated increases.
Of the major business impediments, exchange rate fluctuations, labour shortages, regional economic conditions, and excess room supply still figured prominently as concerns of hoteliers.
Note: The Business Conditions Survey for the traveller accommodation industries covers 1,437 businesses, mostly hotels. It was conducted in September 2008 to assess the fourth-quarter outlook for key indicators compared with the same period last year. These indicators include bookings, occupancy rates, average daily room rates, hours worked by employees, and number of corporate travellers.
Results are based on survey questionnaires sent to traveller accommodation providers and are weighted by their operating revenues. Consequently, larger businesses have a comparatively bigger impact on the results than smaller businesses.
The survey is made possible with the support of industry partners, the Canadian Tourism Commission, the Ontario Ministry of Tourism, Tourism Saskatchewan, Nova Scotia Department of Tourism, and Industry Canada.
Available on CANSIM: tables 351-0004 and 351-0005.
Definitions, data sources and methods: survey number 5050.
For more information, or to enquire about the concepts, methods or data quality of this release, contact Evelyn Park (613-951-3506; fax: 613-951-6696; evelyn.park@statcan.gc.ca), Service Industries Division.
Table(s).
