Dubai:

Dubai is closer to achieving its Tourism Vision for 2020 as the city welcomed 7,941,118 hotel visitors between January and September this year, up 9.8 per cent from 7.2 million achieved during the corresponding period in 2012.

The 2020 vision, announced earlier this year, involves the doubling of Dubai’s visitors from 10 million in 2012 to 20 million in 2020.

According to the latest visitor number results released by the Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DTCM) in a statement on Thursday, Dubai has shown increases across key indicators, including hotel establishment guests, room occupancy levels, hotel and hotel apartment revenues and average length of stay.

Hotels and hotel apartments recorded increases in revenues, which totalled Dh 15.33 billion in the first nine months of the year, up 17.1 per cent over the same period last year.

“A 17.1 per cent increase in revenues for hotels is particularly encouraging, especially given the number of new establishments which have entered the market this year. This demonstrates that Dubai continues to represent a major opportunity for hotel developers and that we must continue to work to ensure that supply is meeting demand,” Helal Al Merri, Director-General of DTCM, said in the statement.

Meanwhile, hotel room occupancy stood at 78.6 per cent for the same period, up 3.1 per cent compared to the corresponding time in 2012, while hotel apartment occupancy grew by 7.3 per cent to 81 per cent.

Also, total guest nights rose 13.7 per cent to 30,874,916, from 27,163,974 during the first nine months of last year.

The average length of stay across hotels and hotel apartments rose 3.5 per cent year-on-year to 3.9 days.

Source markets

Meanwhile, the top five source markets for the nine months ending in September remained almost the same as last year.

Saudi Arabia took the first spot, with 1,052,353 guests, an increase of 24.8 per cent, followed by India, UK, US, Russia, Kuwait, Germany, Oman, China and Iran.

Dubai’s hospitality market has seen new entrants this year, including Novotel Al Barsha, Mövenpick Hotel Apartments The Square in Al Mamzar, Sofitel Dubai the Palm, Conrad Dubai, and the Oberoi Dubai, among others. Opening soon will be the Raviz Centerpoint in Bur Dubai.

Al Merri recently announced that the 10 per cent municipality fee will be waived for newly developed three and four-star hotels in Dubai in order to develop more mid-range hotels.

But even with new hotels opening in Dubai, there is “a need for more accommodation in the short to medium term,” Peter Goddard, managing director of TRI Hospitality Consulting, told Gulf News.

Goddard said that it will take between two and three years before new hotels stabilise. While their occupancy levels may drop below 80 per cent, they will not fall under 75 per cent, he said.