Dubai and Jeddah hotels see revenues soar in Jan

Hotel revenues in Dubai and Jeddah have soared in the first month of 2012 compared to the same month in 2011, latest data from STR Global reveal.

Average rates in Jeddah rose by more than 13 percent to $211.55 while Dubai hotels witnessed an increase of nearly 12 percent to $269.85.

The two cities also showed strong performance for revenue per available room (RevPAR) with Jeddah topping the growth for the Middle East and Africa region.

The Saudi city's hotels saw a 43.9 percent increase to $156.53 while hotels in Dubai saw their RevPAR rise by 26.1 percent to $232.72, STR Global data showed.

Beirut, Lebanon, recorded the largest growth in occupancy, rising 32 percent to 53.4 percent compared to January 2011.

Jeddah also saw strong growth, up 26.9 percent to 74 percent, the figures showed.

Cairo, Egypt, reported the largest decreases in all three key performance metrics.

The market’s occupancy fell 42.4 percent to 36.4 percent, its ADR was down 13 percent to $111.03, and its RevPAR decreased 49.9 percent to $40.46.

Overall, the Middle East/Africa region reported mostly positive performance results in January.

The region was flat in occupancy at 55.5 percent, reported a 6.4 percent increase in ADR to $181.61 and achieved a 6.4 percent increase in RevPAR to $100.88.

“The Middle East started the new year with good results across all key indicators with double-digit RevPAR and occupancy growth”, said Elizabeth Randall, managing director of STR Global.

“The supply increase dropped for the first time in three years below the 5 percent mark. Across Africa, we saw the lowest monthly supply increase (+1.5 percent) for the last three years."