Hotel occupancy rates in Kuwait to rise by 16% this year

KUWAIT CITY - According to a report recently issued by Colliers International, a company specialized in hotel research and occupancy rates, hotels in Kuwait City would record an increase in occupancy rates by 16 percent to reach 31 percent in the current year, reports Al-Anba daily.

The company explained in the report that the occupancy rates in Dubai will record the highest rate in the Middle East and the Gulf region at 79 percent, compared to 74 percent in Doha, 44 percent in Muscat, 48 percent in Oman, and 40 percent in Beirut. It attributed the slow recovery in hotel occupancy rates in Kuwait to strict laws and travel restrictions in light of the COVID-19 situation.

The occupancy rates in the cities of the UAE range between 61 percent and 79 percent, and between 38 percent and 65 percent in Saudi Arabia. The estimated percentage for Bahrain is 49 percent. In the report, which covers 24 cities and regional markets, the company explained that it has begun to notice many markets in the region are pinning hopes on achieving the desired recovery in their performance. It will be for continuous monitoring of the repercussions of the COVID-19 pandemic by government agencies and relevant parties.

The relationship with other key stakeholders in the tourism and hospitality sector have a major impact on how the markets perform after the first quarter of 2022. Although travel restrictions in key markets have recently been relaxed, consumer confidence in hotel performance is still low due to the outbreak of a new wave of COVID-19 variants.

A systematic and consistent approach to recovery and growth is a major improvement in the performance of the hospitality sector in the short and medium term. The methodology of expectations and estimates related to any future activity must be subject to a degree of uncertainty, especially since the COVID-19 pandemic has cast a dark shadow of uncertainty on the hospitality and hotel industry. Colliers’ report stated that its forecasts for 2022 include at least five years of seasonality and market trends for each city or country.

It applies a special model to determine the potential trends for the coming year, and this is then balanced in comparison to the major anticipated developments or events, as well as intervention in this scale under the leadership of the government to achieve the expected occupancy level for the market in 2022.

Given the potential impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on hotel performance, the report was prepared by Colliers, which includes its forecasts of 2022 for hotel occupancy in 24 sub-markets in the main hospitality markets in the Middle East and North Africa, as the major cities in these markets suffered from continued travel restrictions.