Dubai, Kuwait, Bahrain hotel occupancy rates fall

Occupancy rates for hotels in Dubai have fallen by four percent in 2008 to October as a result of the global economic downturn, according to new figures.

The number of people checking into hotels in Kuwait City and Manama also fell by 5.5 and 2.2 percent respectively compared to the same period in 2007, according to latest figures released by STR Global.

“[The downturn] has to be a factor of falling demand. The big banking crisis was about seven weeks ago and we didn’t see an immediate downturn because people had already booked trips and travel was already paid for, but corporate travel has taken a big hit,” James Chappell, managing director of STR Global in London told Arabian Business.

A combination of new hotels coming onto the market has also helped slow down demand, said Chappell. “It’s a combination of new supply coming into the market, and a slight dip in demand,”

The emirate’s revenue per available room (revPAR), however, remained in positive territory with 6.4 percent growth year to date, according to the data.

Occupancy rates in the capital, Abu Dhabi increased by 11.7 percent while revPAR was 48.1 percent, two of the highest figures across ten major cities in the GCC.

In Saudi Arabia, the four main tourist cities of Jeddah, Mecca, Medina and Riyadh all showed small increases in room occupancy rates while their revPAR figures ranged from a four percent increase in Median up to nearly 30 percent in Riyadh.

In Qatar's capital, Doha, occupancy rates rose by nearly four percent while the revPAR figure increased by 25 percent. In Oman's Muscat, occupancy rates were up nearly two percent while the revPAR rocketed by 37 percent.

On Monday the director general of Dubai’s Department of Tourism and Commercial Marketing (DTCM) said it will announce a strategy in the next two weeks to attract tourists during the global economic crisis and may also cut the forecasted visitor goal.

“We are gathering information, looking at trends around the world of travel and tourism and having daily meetings,” Khalid Ahmed bin Sulayem told reporters.

Dubai has become the Middle East’s premier tourist and financial destination as it has benefited from an inflow of petrodollars and investments from international institutions eager to tap Gulf wealth after a six-year oil-price boom.

Bin Sulayem said Dubai’s 37,000 hotel rooms and a further 20,000 rooms in hotel-apartments are seeing occupancy rates of between 80-90 percent.

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