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Dubai’s hospitality market, a core sector contributing to the UAE economy, is now on the road to recovery, fuelled by strong domestic demand for hotels, according to the founder of Al Habtoor Group (AHG), a family-owned conglomerate.
After a massive decline early last year, hotel occupancy rates are now on the rise, ranging between 50 percent and 70 percent throughout the emirates in December, thanks to a “boom” in staycations, said Khalaf Ahmad Al Habtoor, founding chairman of the company, whose portfolio includes the hospitality, real estate, automotive and education sectors.
International visitor arrivals in the UAE plunged during the global lockdown, which forced commercial establishments to shut their doors.
Since the resumption of flights, the hotel industry has seen an upswing in bookings and occupancy.
“While we cannot receive guests from countries in lockdown, we continue to welcome guests from countries still able to travel, such as the CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States), Eastern Europe and the US,” Al Habtoor said in a statement on Sunday.
Back to life
He said it was hard to see hotels close their doors at the start of the pandemic, with hotel lobbies looking like ghost towns.
“I am pleased to see them back to life and delighted that the hospitality industry in Dubai is well on the road to recovery,” Al Habtoor said.
As of December 2020, the key hotel markets in the UAE have reached or surpassed 50 percent occupancy due to strong domestic and recent international demand, according to STR.
For the week of November 30 through December 6, hotels saw the highest occupancy levels in the country, particularly those in Abu Dhabi (69 percent), Ajman (66.5 percent) and Dubai (65.8 percent).
“International travel has been in the crossfire of the pandemic but the UAE has done a fine job in generating domestic demand and staycations to move the occupancy line in the right direction,” Philip Wooller, STR’s area director for the Middle East and Africa, said earlier.
“Abu Dhabi’s and Dubai’s tourism organisations, as well as Etihad and Emirates airlines, have done a phenomenal job in preparing the way for international guests to return.”
Positive year
Al Habtoor said he is expecting 2021 results to surpass those of 2019. He noted that the teams at Habtoor Hospitality had to “reinvent” their sales approach, looking at offers and opportunities to reinvigorate the market.
“Some of our hotels are already ahead of last year by more than 20 percent, year to date,” he said.
The UAE’s success, Al Habtoor noted, is down to the “excellent” crisis management and transparency of the authorities, as well as the collaboration between the private and public sector.
Al Habtoor said that other parts of the family business are also faring well. Its car leasing business, Diamondlease, increased its fleet size by 24 percent to reach more than 10,000 vehicles in the period from March 2020 to March 2021, with a 90 percent utilisation rate.
The real estate division has also seen “solid growth”, achieving more than 300 percent surge in the volume of sales compared to the same period last year.
(Writing by Cleofe Maceda; editing by Seban Scaria)
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