The supply of hotel rooms in Queensland, Australia

Most studies emphasize the demand for tourism goods and services. By contrast, this paper examines the supply decisions of hotel and motel owners with respect to guest rooms. This decision is hypothesized to depend upon earnings per room, room occupancy rates, and the rate of interest. The reaction of hoteliers to changes in the values of these particular variables is modelled econometrically for the 1986-94 period in the three tourism regions of the Cold Coast, Whitsunday, and Cairns of Queensland in Australia. The study shows that, over this investigation period, the supply responses were very different among the three regions. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.