A new forecast for Calgary's hospitality industry suggests demand for hotel rooms is recovering after a bruising recession, but there are fears the outlook may be too rosy for a city that's seen a major drop in corporate travel.

The report by the real estate firm CBRE Canada predicts Calgary hotels will book 3.3 million nightly stays in 2018 — driven largely by corporate clients — which is roughly in line with what the industry saw as the recession hit in 2014.

Still, the forecast notes this rise in demand will not be enough to fill all of the new rooms that have been built since the downturn. According to CBRE, the hotel occupancy rate is expected to hover around 59 per cent this year, down from 70 per cent in 2014.

"We've turned a corner, but no one is suggesting it's going to be a speedy recovery," said David Larone, a senior managing director at CBRE.

Rose-coloured glasses?

Still, an executive at Calgary's Hotel Arts said the forecast demand for rooms may be too optimistic.

Fraser Abbott, the hotel's director of business development, said the industry hasn't seen a meaningful return to corporate travel, which was hit hard during the slowdown.

Fraser Abbott, director of business development at Hotel Arts, says the hospitality industry is attempting to diversify to make up for the loss of corporate clients. (CBC)

"We're seeing slow, measured growth," Abbott said. "In due course we're going to start to see demand start to come back, but it's going to take a little while to fill up that new inventory that's out there."

Calgary is seeing a major influx of new hotels — a 20 per cent jump in four years — including the Holiday Inn and Suites in the south, ALT Hotel downtown and the Westin Hotel at the international airport.

It comes at a time of sluggish growth. The industry sold a little more than three million hotel rooms in 2017, up about six per cent from the year before.

'A trend in the right direction'

"It doesn't get us back to the pre-recession numbers, but it is an improvement and it is a trend in the right direction," said Cassandra McAuley, a spokeswoman with Tourism Calgary, adding the industry has seen its eighth consecutive month of increased hotel room stays.

Despite the uptick in demand, rates are falling, largely because the industry is relying more on leisure travellers, who pay less than corporate clients, McAuley said.

Hotel rooms in Calgary cost an average of $143 per night last year, down from almost $145 in 2016.

Abbott said the industry is attempting to diversify to make up for the loss of corporate clients. He said hotels and tourism operators are looking to pitch Calgary to leisure travellers and attract a wider variety of corporate clients, including agricultural, technology and communications firms.

"It's going to be a slow exit (from the recession)," he said.