Muscat hospitality market posts 5.3pc rise

However, cities such as Cairo, Amman and Beirut are popular tourism destinations among both Arab expats and Westerners alike, and are likely to see an uptick in occupancy, and subsequently REVPAR, across their hospitality markets over the summer.”

In the first quarter of 2018, Dubai achieved the highest occupancy, average room rate (ADR) and REVPAR across the MENA region. The city’s occupancy reached 86.9 per cent with an ADR of $293, which led to an overall REVPAR of $255 in Q1 2018.

In the United Arab Emirates, the hospitality market saw a slight increase in occupancy in Q1 2018 over Q1 2017. Occupancy in Dubai increased by 0.8 per cent points from 86.1 per cent in Q1 2017 to 86.9 per cent in Q1 2018, possibly due to international visitors of the 23rd edition of the Dubai Shopping Festival as well the favourable weather.

Even though there was a slight decline in ADR by 1.2 per cent from $297 in Q1 2017 to $293 in Q1 2018, Dubai achieved the highest REVPAR in the region at $255 in Q1 2018, the same as last year.

Driving the overall hospitality KPIS for Dubai were the hotels located on the beach, which saw an increase across occupancy, average room rate and REVPAR in Q1 2018. In the first quarter of this year, the occupancy of beachfront hotels in Dubai reached 82.7 per cent with an average room rate of $559, leading to a REVPAR of $462. Meanwhile, hotels in the city of Dubai saw a slight increase in occupancy with 88.7 per cent, but REVPAR fell by 6.2 per cent to $168 in Q1 2018 due to a 6.8 per cent decline in the average room rate.

The hospitality market in Abu Dhabi also registered an increase in occupancy by 7.3 per cent points, up from 79.3 per cent in Q1 2017 to 86.6 per cent in Q1 2018.

The increase in occupancy may be attributed to the marketing efforts by Abu Dhabi’s Department of Culture and Tourism to engage more visitors from various Asian countries. However, the ADR decreased by 14.7 per cent from $122 in Q1 2017 to $104 over the same period, leading to a decrease in REVPAR by 6.9 per cent from $97 in Q1 2017 to $90 in Q1 2018.

In Saudi Arabia, Madinah, Riyadh and Makkah witnessed an increase in occupancy; however, Jeddah witnessed a decrease of 5.7 per cent points from 54.4 per cent in Q1 2017 to 48.7 per cent in Q1 2018. The hospitality market in Jeddah also witnessed a decrease in ADR by 5 per cent from $197 in Q1 2017 to $187 in the same period of this year.