Saturday, Sep 19, 2015
Dubai: The number of hotel rooms under construction in the Middle East and Africa region grew by 38.5 per cent year-on-year in August, according to the latest report from research firm STR Global.
The actual number of rooms being built last month reached 97,553. Saudi Arabia had the most rooms under construction, which touched 28,745 rooms (in 68 hotels). It was followed by the United Arab Emirates with 23,821 rooms in 90 hotels and Qatar with 7,315 rooms in 30 hotels, as per the August 2015 STR Global Construction Pipeline Report.
There were 688 hotels with 175,574 rooms under contract in the region in August, up 19.1 per cent when compared to the same month in 2014.
The United Arab Emirates, particularly Dubai, is seeing an increasing number of hotel rooms coming online. Next year, 20,000 more rooms are expected to enter the emirate, according to the Dubai Corporation for Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DCTCM). Between 140,000 and 160,000 rooms are needed by 2020, when the emirate aims to welcome 20 million visitors annually and host the Expo 2020, which is anticipated to attract 25 million visitors.
Higher hotel room supply has lowered average room rates in the emirate this year. In August, average daily rates (ADR) dropped 12.5 per cent year-on-year to Dh587.50, according to data from STR Global. This, coupled with a 1.7 per cent decline in occupancy to 74.2 per cent, resulted in revenue per available room to drop 13.9 per cent to Dh435.66.
In July, however, occupancy was below 50 per cent until the end of Ramadan (which started June 18 and ended July 16), after which it touched 70 per cent, the research firm said. The higher occupancy year-on-year and the 2.9 per cent decline in ADR to Dh614 resulted in RevPAR to grow 22.4 per cent to Dh353.
Hotel room supply grew by 6 per cent in August outpacing demand which was up 4.3 per cent.
Staff Report
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