Confidence returns to Australia’s hotels as pressures build
New research shows most accommodation operators are confident heading into the 2025–26 peak season, even as staffing shortages and technology gaps persist.
2 min
Australia’s accommodation sector is entering the peak summer travel season with renewed confidence – but structural challenges around staffing and technology adoption remain unresolved.
The third edition of the Australian Accommodation Barometer, released by Booking.com in partnership with Statista, draws on insights from travel executives across hotels, tourism operators and alternative accommodation providers nationwide.
Despite ongoing geopolitical and macro-economic uncertainty, 75 per cent of Australian accommodation operators report a positive business outlook for the coming season, a marked improvement from the sector’s low point of 61 per cent in 2022.
Confidence varies by state, with Victoria recording the strongest sentiment around business development over the past six months.
That optimism is translating into investment. Nearly half of all respondents plan to increase investment in the months ahead, while a further 35 per cent intend to maintain current levels.
Larger chain hotels are leading the charge, while small and mid-sized operators and lower-rated properties are taking a more cautious approach.
One of the clearest growth drivers identified in the report is event-led tourism, which is increasingly helping operators smooth out the peaks and troughs of traditional seasonality.
Among accommodation providers that have felt the impact of events, almost half reported an increase in international or long-haul guests, while 46 per cent saw stronger booking volumes during typically quieter periods.
Financial benefits were also evident, with higher revenue per room and longer stays reported across parts of the sector.
To capitalise on this shift, many operators are embedding events into their broader strategies.
More than a third already host events to attract group and non-leisure travellers, while partnerships with wedding planners and event organisers are proving particularly effective.
Looking ahead, over half of respondents plan to actively collaborate with event organisers, and many are seeking closer alignment with local governments and destination marketing bodies.
Yet behind the positive headline figures, staffing remains a persistent pressure point.
On average, Australian hotels expect to hire more than seven employees over the next year, but filling senior and specialised roles continues to be difficult.
High salary expectations, long or irregular working hours and skills shortages were all cited as key barriers, alongside the cost and complexity of training less experienced staff.
Technology adoption presents a similar fault line.
While most operators recognise the potential of digital tools and artificial intelligence, particularly in marketing, customer service and cybersecurity, uptake remains uneven.
High implementation costs, integration challenges and a lack of technical expertise are slowing progress, particularly for smaller properties, raising concerns about a widening digital divide across the sector.
“While the sustained optimism among Australian accommodation providers is genuinely encouraging, our findings highlight clear and urgent challenges,” Todd Lacey, Regional Manager for Oceania at Booking.com, said.
“The skills shortage remains a major bottleneck, and the high cost and complexity of digital technology risks creating a digital divide where smaller businesses are left behind.
“However, the industry is not standing still; proactive strategies like embracing collaborative approaches to event tourism are showing real success in tackling seasonality, with accommodations seeing a crucial rise in bookings during typically low-demand periods.”
As Australia is in the midst of a busy summer, the barometer suggests an industry buoyed by demand and opportunity, but increasingly defined by a split between those able to invest and adapt, and those struggling to keep pace.
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The lunar flyby would be the deepest humans have traveled in space in decades.
4 min
It’s go time for the highest-stakes mission at NASA in more than 50 years.
On April 1, the agency is set to launch four astronauts around the moon, the deepest human spaceflight since the final Apollo lunar landing in 1972.
The launch window for Artemis II , as the mission is called, opens at 6:24 p.m. ET.
National Aeronautics and Space Administration teams have been preparing the vehicles to depart from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center on the planned roughly 10-day trip. Crew members have trained for years for this moment.
Reid Wiseman, the NASA astronaut serving as mission commander, said he doesn’t fear taking the voyage. A widower, he does worry at times about what he is putting his daughters through.
“I could have a very comfortable life for them,” Wiseman said in an interview last September.
“But I’m also a human, and I see the spirit in their eyes that is burning in my soul too. And so we’ve just got to never stop going.”
Wiseman’s crewmates on Artemis II are NASA’s Victor Glover and Christina Koch, as well as Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen.
What are the goals for Artemis II?
The biggest one: Safely fly the crew on vehicles that have never carried astronauts before.
The towering Space Launch System rocket has the job of lofting a vehicle called Orion into space and on its way to the moon.
Orion is designed to carry the crew around the moon and back. Myriad systems on the ship—life support, communications, navigation—will be tested with the astronauts on board.
SLS and Orion don’t have much flight experience. The vehicles last flew in 2022, when the agency completed its uncrewed Artemis I mission .
How is the mission expected to unfold?
Artemis II will begin when SLS takes off from a launchpad in Florida with Orion stacked on top of it.
The so-called upper stage of SLS will later separate from the main part of the rocket with Orion attached, and use its engine to set up the latter vehicle for a push to the moon.
After Orion separates from the upper stage, it will conduct what is called a translunar injection—the engine firing that commits Orion to soaring out to the moon. It will fly to the moon over the course of a few days and travel around its far side.
Orion will face a tough return home after speeding through space. As it hits Earth’s atmosphere, Orion will be flying at 25,000 miles an hour and face temperatures of 5,000 degrees as it slows down. The capsule is designed to land under parachutes in the Pacific Ocean, not far from San Diego.
Is it possible Artemis II will be delayed?
Yes.
For safety reasons, the agency won’t launch if certain tough weather conditions roll through the Cape Canaveral, Fla., area. Delays caused by technical problems are possible, too. NASA has other dates identified for the mission if it doesn’t begin April 1.
Who are the astronauts flying on Artemis II?
The crew will be led by Wiseman, a retired Navy pilot who completed military deployments before joining NASA’s astronaut corps. He traveled to the International Space Station in 2014.
Two other astronauts will represent NASA during the mission: Glover, an experienced Navy pilot, and Koch, who began her career as an electrical engineer for the agency and once spent a year at a research station in the South Pole. Both have traveled to the space station before.
Hansen is a military pilot who joined Canada’s astronaut corps in 2009. He will be making his first trip to space.
Koch’s participation in Artemis II will mark the first time a woman has flown beyond orbits near Earth. Glover and Hansen will be the first African-American and non-American astronauts, respectively, to do the same.
What will the astronauts do during the flight?
The astronauts will evaluate how Orion flies, practice emergency procedures and capture images of the far side of the moon for scientific and exploration purposes (they may become the first humans to see parts of the far side of the lunar surface). Health-tracking projects of the astronauts are designed to inform future missions.
Those efforts will play out in Orion’s crew module, which has about two minivans worth of living area.
On board, the astronauts will spend about 30 minutes a day exercising, using a device that allows them to do dead lifts, rowing and more. Sleep will come in eight-hour stretches in hammocks.
There is a custom-made warmer for meals, with beef brisket and veggie quiche on the menu.
Each astronaut is permitted two flavored beverages a day, including coffee. The crew will hold one hourlong shared meal each day.
The Universal Waste Management System—that’s the toilet—uses air flow to pull fluid and solid waste away into containers.
What happens after Artemis II?
Assuming it goes well, NASA will march on to Artemis III, scheduled for next year. During that operation, NASA plans to launch Orion with crew members on board and have the ship practice docking with lunar-lander vehicles that Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin have been developing. The rendezvous operations will occur relatively close to Earth.
NASA hopes that its contractors and the agency itself are ready to attempt one or more lunar landing missions in 2028. Many current and former spaceflight officials are skeptical that timeline is feasible.
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