Abu Dhabi leads world on hotel rates rise - survey

Abu Dhabi is leading the world when it comes to bucking the downturn in the global tourism industry, a new survey shows.

A survey of more than 92,000 room night bookings across the world during the first quarter of 2009 has revealed that the UAE capital showed the largest increase in hotel room rates.

On average, its year-on-year rates rose by more than 33 percent, compared to its neighbour Dubai which recorded a room rate decrease of 25 percent, the survey by US travel management company Ovation Travel Group showed.

The report said in the first quarter of 2009, three, four and five-star hotels across the world lowered their rates by an average of 17.4 percent compared with the first quarter of 2008.

The survey, which polled 30 US and international destinations, showed that 26 of them showed room rate decreases, with Singapore cutting prices by 35 percent as the impact of the global crisis on travel plans continued to bite.

As well as Abu Dhabi, only Dublin (6.2 percent), Milan (5.1 percent) and Tokyo (3.2 percent) showed rises in hotel room rates.

Ten destinations, including Dubai, Delhi, Hong Kong, London, Mumbai, New York, and Singapore showed year-over-year decreases of more than 20 percent.

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