Business | Tourism
Dubai hotels do not expect slowdown
Dubai's hospitality industry is well-positioned to handle the fallout from any drop in tourist numbers from Europe, amid the spread of the US financial crisis, industry experts said on Tuesday.
- Staff Report
- Published: 23:52 September 16, 2008
- Tourists on a dune bashing trip take in the view of the UAE's dramatic landscape.
- Image Credit: Supplied Picture
Dubai: Dubai's hospitality industry is well-positioned to handle the fallout from any drop in tourist numbers from Europe, amid the spread of the US financial crisis, industry experts said on Tuesday.
Although Dubai can shrug off a decline in American visitors as they make up only a fraction of Dubai's seven million tourist arrivals per year, the city will have to find other markets in case the impact of the US financial crisis spreads to Europe and hits consumer spending, industry watchers said.
"Non-essential business travel and leisure travel will inevitability be hit by an economic slowdown. But the UAE is in a better position than other regions to tackle the situation," said Guy Wilkinson, partner of Dubai-based hospitality and real estate consulting firm Viability.
Wealthy tourists
Dubai's hotel sector has a dominance of luxury hotels and Abu Dhabi has an even greater focus on the high-end tourist segment.
"Dubai has positioned itself as a destination for wealthy tourists and these people will still be travelling, so the impact will be less than in places like Egypt or Spain," Wilkinson said.
In the coming days another 1,500 luxury hotel rooms will come on the market in Dubai when Atlantis, The Palm, on Palm Jumeirah opens.
There are more than 50,000 hotel rooms in Dubai and this number is projected to increase significantly to accommodate a projected 15 million tourists by 2015. Last year the city attracted about 7 million hotel guests.
In a slowdown scenario, markets like Russia will become more important as a source of tourists. "Russia is very important and this group will continue to grow. It is a luxury segment that has benefited Dubai hotels," said Bilal Sayyed, general manager of Destinations of the World travel company.
He said the region will not be spared the effects of what is happening in international markets but he believes Dubai has shown resilience in managing difficult situations.
"It will be able to create new sources of tourists," Sayyed said.
Hotels in Dubai will be watching guest trends in the coming months to determine the impact of a softening world economy.
Eisam Nizam, executive assistant manager of Dubai's Metropolitan Hotel, said hotels did well in August in attracting European tourists because it was a vacation month for Europe. At his hotel, 55 per cent of guests were from Europe last month.
"October and November are business travel months and then again there will be holiday travel in Dec-ember.
"There is not going to be an immediate impact [of the US and European econ-omic situation] on Dubai. We will have to wait and see how the situation develops," he said.
Nizam, who worked in the US hospitality industry for 20 years before moving to Dubai, said the American outbound travel market has already been suffering from the worsening economy.
"They think ten times before going on vacation overseas," he said, but added that it is not a worry for Dubai because it gets more European travellers.
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