Hotels ramp up rates to cash in on rugby tourists Cash cows: The British Lion's fans. Major hotels are cashing in on the 30,000 British and Irish fans expected to visit Australia for the Lions rugby tour, with some charging as much as double the normal rate for rooms on the night of the Sydney Test next month. In a welcome boost to the tourism industry in one of its quietest periods of the year, an extra 10,000 fans are expected to visit Australia, up from the 20,000 who visited when the Lions last toured in 2001. With the tour having kicked off in Perth last week, tourism officials are planning for the increase despite the exchange rate between the pound and the dollar being far less favourable, having declined about 40 per cent in the intervening 12 years. On the popular hotel booking site wotif.com on Friday, Four Seasons Sydney was asking $504 for a room on the night of the third Test match in Sydney, compared with $356 for the same room the previous Saturday. Grace Hotel's cheapest room on Test night was $650 compared with $460 the week before, with the Marriott Sydney Harbour demanding $519 for a room that cost $259 seven days before the match. The Marriott said it could not comment about that weekend in particular but when the city is very busy, rates will go up based on the market. The other hotels were unavailable for comment. So-called price gouging by hotels, which was a feature of the 2001 Lions tour, appears not to be as extreme this time, possibly due to the extra fans filling up more rooms with only 100 official travel packages, most including flights, accommodation and match tickets, remaining to be sold in Britain. Overall economic benefit to the Australian economy has been conservatively estimated at $150 million. Visitation from Britain, one of Australia's three most important tourism markets, is down 8600, or 1.4 per cent, for the year ending April compared with the previous year, but tourism officials predict Lions visitors will lift overall numbers. Rugby supporters tend to be affluent, with expenditure between games expected to be high in both city and regional areas, according to Ken Morrison, chief executive of the industry lobby group Tourism and Transport Forum. "There's no doubt that it will provide a significant boost to tourism expenditure," he said. Mr Morris, whose organisation is forecasting between 25,000 and 30,000 Lions fans will visit Australia, said British and Irish visitors are being encouraged to take side trips to regional destinations before and after the Test matches. Justin Hopwood, head of sales and marketing for Lions Rugby Travel, the official travel company for the tour, said the appeal for fans in coming to Australia is "half the rugby and half seeing Australia" with visiting friends and family also a factor.