Uluru is now the most expensive holiday destination in Australia ... and the third most expensive in the worldUluru is now the most expensive holiday destination in Australia ... and the third most expensive in the world
The latest Hotels Price Index report, which is based on bookings through hotels.com, found the average room in Uluru, in Central Australia, costs $300 a night in the first half of the year, which is a slight increase from $287 last year.
The only two popular destinations in the world more expensive than Uluru were New York City at $316 a night, and Rio De Janeiro in Brazil at $302 a night.
Uluru, one of the most iconic tourism sites in Australia, had the most expensive hotel costs in the report
Uluru is largely monopolised by Voyages Tourism, a company which owns the majority of hotels in the area
Uluru is home to World Heritage listed red rock, which is one of the nation's most iconic sites.
Hotels in Uluru appear to be largely controlled by Voyages Indigenous Tourism, a company which owns five of the five hotels listed in TripAdviser for Uluru and three of the three on Booking.com.
Voyages spokesperson Karena Noble told Daily Mail Australia that she questioned the pertinence of the report. 'Bookings through Hotels.com represent a small percentage of the total bookings taken for the Resort, making it an unrepresentative sample.'
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Interestingly, the cheapest destination in the report was Alice Springs, a city which is under an hour's flight from Uluru. Alice Springs had an average of $106 a night on the report.
Paul Bailey, a spokesperson for Lasseters Hotel in Alice Springs, told Daily Mail Australia: ‘Alice Springs has some of the most expensive flight rates of anywhere in Australia. We try to level that out with the costs of accommodation.’
‘It’s ironic that Alice Springs has been listed the cheapest holiday destination in Australia, because we just won best Deluxe Accommodation award in the 2013 Australian Tourism awards,’ Mr Bailey said.
Paul Bailey said that Lasseters Hotel offers cheap accomodation to offset the relatively large flight costs involved in getting to Alice Springs
The report found American and Chinese tourists tended to pay the most for accommodation in Australia, spending an average of $192 a night.
The Holiday Index report comes as Tourism Research Australia's has released it's latest survey, which shows international tourist spending in Australia has risen 7 per cent from the last year to $30.1 billion.
Source: The daily mail - 3 September 2014
