19 September 2012
Commenting on the survey, Yousef Wahbeh, MENA Head of Transaction Real Estate at Ernst & Young said: "Overall occupancy in Dubai hotels is at 69.4% this July, 11.1% lower than the monthly occupancy in July 2011, due primarily to Ramadan partly falling in the month of July this year. With Ramadan extending through August, it is similarly expected that a drop in occupancy will be registered. Rooms yield (RevPAR) has dropped 10.3% in July even as average room rate has increased 4.1%, which is indicative of improved rate integrity and stronger confidence in the market from hoteliers' perspective.
Commenting on the survey, Yousef Wahbeh, MENA Head of Transaction Real Estate at Ernst & Young said: "Overall occupancy in Dubai hotels is at 69.4% this July, 11.1% lower than the monthly occupancy in July 2011, due primarily to Ramadan partly falling in the month of July this year. With Ramadan extending through August, it is similarly expected that a drop in occupancy will be registered. Rooms yield (RevPAR) has dropped 10.3% in July even as average room rate has increased 4.1%, which is indicative of improved rate integrity and stronger confidence in the market from hoteliers' perspective.
In the wider region, we see a marked change in the Bahrain market, where July occupancy increased 39.1% from last year. The change may be attributed to stability and business confidence improvements. Positive developments have also been noted in Amman, where occupancy increased 36.4% year to date in July 2012 with the unrest in neighboring Syria driving an inflow of people into Jordan.
Sharm El Shaikh witnessed a 19.5% occupancy increase year to date and this is a positive for tourism growth in Egypt in the coming months and years.
Another notable increase was seen in Jeddah which registered an 18.6% annual change in occupancy reflecting the growth of tourism during Ramadan and Umrah travel."
© Press Release 2012
