| 04 Nov 2009 |
|
Gulf hospitality sector still struggling to find its footing
- Text size
Wednesday, Nov 04, 2009
Gulf News
Dubai The hospitality industry in the Gulf region is still reeling under the impact of the downturn and has suffered declines in all the four key measurements in year-over-year results for September, top industry experts said.
"The region has improved, especially [the] UAE, considerably when compared to August, while average revenue per available room [RevPAR] growth is finally showing signs of improvement," James Chappell, managing director of STR Global, said.
The region's occupancy rates dropped 13.05 per cent to 51.48 per cent; average daily rates fell 10.45 per cent to $197.51 (Dh725.4); revenue per available room decreased 22.13 per cent to $101.67 and revenues fell by 15.49 per cent to $396.83 million.
"We currently expect 2009 to end with RevPAR declines in most markets compared to 2008 resulting from declines in both occupancy and average room rates as demand has declined across the region," Konstanze Auernheimer, STR Global marketing director, said in an interview with Gulf News.
He said if the wider economy continued on its current path, improvement would set in during the latter half of 2010.
Worst fall
Saudi Arabia and Qatar suffered the worst fall among the Gulf countries. Saudi Arabia's occupancy rates fell 26.47 per cent to 47.67 per cent in September 2009 when compared to 64.83 per cent during the same period last year.
Konstanze said the September results were down in Saudi Arabia partly due to the change of Ramadan compared to last year. Qatar's performance is in line with the past few months.
The UAE showed the least decline among Gulf countries. Occupancy rates fell by 4.23 per cent to 58.08 per cent when compared to 60.64 per cent in September 2008.
"The recent years of investment and development of hotels and tourism infrastructure have led to a strong increase in supply which now suffers due to missing demand. Whilst the revPAR declines look huge, the UAE still achieves the highest revPAR (year-to date) for the region," Konstanze said.
Robert O'Hanlon, tourism, hospitality and leisure partner at Deloitte Middle East, said Dubai's occupancy decreased by 10.6 per cent in September 2009 compared to August 2009.
The average growth of occupancy in the quarter July-September 2009 is 1.86 percentage points higher than in the same period in 2008. RevPAR showed a small increase in September 2009 relative to August 2009.
The average growth of RevPAR in the quarter July-September 2009 was 4.06 percentage points higher than in the same period in 2008. Abu Dhabi's RevPAR rose by 13 per cent in September.
By Naushad K. Cherrayil, Staff Reporter
© Gulf News 2009. All rights reserved.
Zawya is a distributor (and not a publisher) of content supplied by third parties and subscribers. Any opinions, advice, statements, services, offers, or other information or content expressed or made available by those third parties, including information providers, subscribers or other users of the Service, are those of the respective author(s) or distributor(s) and not of the Company. The Company neither endorses nor is responsible for the accuracy or reliability of any opinion, advice or statement made on the Service by anyone other than authorized Service employee spokespersons while acting in their official capacities. The Company is not responsible for any infringement of intellectual property rights or breach of any applicable law or regulation, including regulation in relation to financial services or the distribution of financial products, defamation, data protection, telecommunications (including regulations relating to excessive use, spamming or other abusive activities) or obscene, offensive or illegal content). Under no circumstances will the Company be liable for any loss or damage caused by a member's reliance on information obtained through the Service. It is the responsibility of member to evaluate the accuracy, completeness or usefulness of any information, opinion, advice or other content available through the Service. Please seek the advice of professionals, as appropriate, regarding the evaluation of any specific information, opinion, advice or other content.
Read the full Member Agreement
http://www.zawya.com/legal/NewsLetter.cfm?name=disclaimer
More News in Travel & Tourism
Loading ...
Post a Comment
1.1 Contain any material which is libelous or defamatory of any person, is obscene, offensive, hateful or inflammatory or causes damage to the reputation of any person or organisation.
1.2 Promote sexually explicit material, violence, discrimination based on race, sex, religion, nationality, disability, sexual orientation or age or any illegal activity.
1.3 Be made in breach of any legal duty owed to a third party, such as a contractual duty or a duty of confidence.
1.4 Be threatening, abuse or invade another's privacy, or cause annoyance, inconvenience or needless anxiety.
1.5 Be used to impersonate any person, to misrepresent your identity or affiliation with any person, or be likely to deceive any person.
1.6 Give the impression that they represent Zawya.
1.7 Advocate, promote or assist any unlawful act such as (by way of example only) copyright infringement or computer misuse.