• There are 6407 hotels in Australia
• Australian hotels employ 258,386 people
• The valued added by Australia's hotel industry is close to 1% of Australia's gross domestic product
• Small independent owners make up 88% of the industry in Australia

Employment Facts

Hotels are one of the largest and most significant employers in Australia.  Total employment in the hotel industry in Australia is 258,386.  With hotels located right across the country and so many of them in regional areas, staff who are employed in hotels work in a variety of different locations.  They are also employed in a wide variety of roles.  Queensland has the highest average employee numbers per hotel.  Hotels employ full-time staff, part-time staff, casual staff and contractors.  This reflects the diverse nature of employment in hotel businesses and, by extension, the hotel industry, and the fact that some of the busiest periods in hotels are night-times and weekends.  The industry plays a vital role in providing casual employment to people who balance other work/life commitments. Hotel employees encompass a wide variety of ages.  School leavers, university students, full-time professionals and the semi-retired, among many others, work in hotels.

Training Facts

In order for hotels to have skilled and efficient staff to ensure customers receive the highest possible standard of service hotel staff need to be trained.  Australia's hotel industry provides a combination of formal and informal (or on-the-job) training for staff.

The total annual commitment to formal and informal training by hotels across Australia is $71.8 million with $25.4 million of this attributable to formal training and $46.4 million attributable to informal training. 

*Information sourced from OURhotel - the Offical Publication of the Australian Hotels Association - October 2009  

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