The 2009 accommodation Season
What great summer weather we are having.
According to my summer litmus test - the number of days I wear shorts - it is the best since ‘la canicule’ of 2003.
It has been so warm, sunny and dry the vineyard owners here in Burgundy expect an earlier than usual harvest - and a good quality one too.
The heat has also caused our chestnut tree leaves to dry up and fall weeks earlier than in previous years - see this image taken today - very sad!
I guess ‘dry’ is probably also an apt word to describe the businesss side of the 09 Season.
From talking with other accommodation providers, tourist operators and wine sellers many people are experiencing a ‘less than robust’ season - for obvious reasons.
The common observation is the heavily reduced numbers of British and Amercian holiday travellers.
If you have sales growth, or are even ‘down’ between 0 and 20% on last season you are doing pretty well; between minus 20% to 30% you are generally in good company; if you are more than 30% down I suggest you may want to review your marketing!
If your business consists more of French and Europeans, you will probably have fared better compared to those of us who rely heavily on the English speaking market.
We fall into the middle group. Last year we averaged 26 letting weeks for each of our three apartments, this year we will finish just under 20 weeks.
There have been two elements that have helped us to avoid a ‘disatrous’ year.
Firstly the number of ‘late’ bookings that we have received, significantly more than last year. Holiday decisions have been made closer to time of travel once people have felt more secure about their jobs/income.
Secondly has been the number of Australian guests we have welcomed onto our property. In a ‘normal’ year we would expect Aussies to make up around 20-25% of our guests. This year they will be close to 50%.
It is almost like Australians have been immune to the global economic crisis. They do refer to it as the ‘Lucky’ country!
So while 09 will be memorable for the wrong reasons, the positive thing about the tourism/hospitality business is that it is cyclical.
Roll on a better year in 2010!!
August 20th, 2009 at 10:25 am
Well, we had almost no spring bookings and the bookings for summer were well late in arriving BUT we did end up with a fully booked summer season bar one week. ONE of those was at less than three days notice.
On the other hand, we’ve already had the first enquiry for 2010.
So maybe by Xmas things will be back to normal - we generally expect the phone to start ringing around New Year…
August 20th, 2009 at 10:40 am
Hi Chris, interesting comment - merci! We too have had two enquiries for 2010, I suspect both are honeymoon situations so not committed as yet. Hopefully Joe/Jolie consumer will start to believe the more positive economic news that has started to emerge.