CAIRNS accommodation providers have been forced to reduce rates in a bid to compensate for falling tourist numbers over the past 12 months. 

The latest tourism accommodation figures released by Tourism Queensland shown a fall in takings, yield per room and room nights occupied in Tropical North Queensland as a result of the drop off in tourism numbers, both international and domestic.

The figures showed an increase in supply but a fall in demand right across the country with only Western Australia showing a strong occupancy rate increase.

In the 12 months to the end of June the number of room nights occupied in in Tropical North Queensland fell by  1.8 per cent in comparison with a 3.8 per cent rise in the number of rooms available.

Across all the sectors, visitors spent $388,552,378 on accommodation in the region, a drop of 0.7 per cent.

The figures showed the biggest fall was in the hotel sector while the numbeer of people staying in motels, holiday flats and houses rose.

The figures were released at the same time industry group Tourism & Transport Forum (TTF) research showed a severe lack of confidence in the tourism industry for the October-December quarter.

The TTF Quarterly Sentiment Survey shows nearly two thirds of respondents rated overall tourism industry performance for the October to December period as 'worse' or 'much worse' than expected at this time of year.

TTF executive director Olivia Wirth said the drop in confidence is understandable in the context of the global financial crisis.

"When times are tough, the first thing people cut back is discretionary spending, and that includes holidays," Ms Wirth said.

"This is obviously a concern for the 483,000 Australians who work in the tourism sector.

"More than half of the businesses surveyed said forward bookings were 'worse' or "much worse" than normal for this time of year.

"There's a fair degree of pessimism looking ahead as well, with numerous operators raising concerns about tourism activity in the first half of 2009.

"While they're telling us forward bookings for the Christmas period are OK, because many people planned their holidays before the economic slowdown, they expect things to get worse after that.''

Ms Wirth said there were clearly worries about the impact of the global financial crisis on international visitor numbers, especially from key markets such as the UK and the US, with business and leisure travellers alike delaying their decisions.

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