Business | Tourism

Middle East has highest rate of hotel occupancy

The Middle East had the highest hotel occupancy and average room rates in the world in the first half of the year, Deloitte & Touche LLP said.

  • Bloomberg
  • Published: 23:42 August 21, 2008
  • Gulf News

Dubai: The Middle East had the highest hotel occupancy and average room rates in the world in the first half of the year, Deloitte & Touche LLP said.

Occupancy was 75.3 per cent in the first half compared with 68.7 per cent in the previous six months, Deloitte said in an e- mailed statement yesterday. The average room rate rose 14.1 per cent to $180.

Middle East countries, including the UAE and Qatar, are investing in tourism as they aim to div-ersify their economies away from oil.

Global hotel groups, including Intercontinental Hotels Group Plc., Four Seasons, Marriott International Inc and Holiday Inn are expanding their operations in the region to capture emerging opportunities.

Dubai posted the highest occupancy and average room rate in the region at 85.3 per cent and $321 per room, Deloitte said.

Dubai is investing $4.5 billion on increasing its airport's capacity to 75 million passengers per year by 2009, and plans to build the world's largest airport 40 kilometres away to cater for a further 120 million passengers per year.

Tourist visits

The emirate aims to increase tourist visits to 10 million per year by 2010 and 15 million by 2015.

Asia Pacific had the second-highest occupancy rate after the Middle East at 67.9 per cent, Deloitte said. Europe had the second-highest average room rate at $174, it said.

InterContinental said in July that second-quarter earnings beat estimates after revenue per available room in the Middle East increased by 27 per cent compared to 1.6 per cent in the Americas.

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