Dubai hotel revenues in H1 top $3 billion

Revenues at hotels in Dubai hit AED12.74billion (US$3.18bn) in the first half of 2014, with the hospitality industry benefitting from a record number of visitors and growth from emerging source markets.

The revenues, for hoteliers and hotel apartment operators, was up 10.9% on the same period last year, with room revenue up 15.3% and F&B up 3.8%, according to figures from Dubai’s Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DTCM).

During the first half of the year, guest numbers across all hotel establishments reached 5,828,449, a record for the period.

Total guest nights were up 6.7% for hotels and 4.1% for hotel apartments, while the average length of stay increased across the board, with an average of 3.9 days. This was split out into 3.4 days at hotels and 5.7 days at hotel apartments.

His Excellency Helal Saeed Almarri, director-general of DTCM, said: “The figures for the first half of 2014 are encouraging and we continue to build on this growth to ensure a successful second half of the year.

“The figures show an increase in visitors from many of our key source markets – for example we are seeing strong growth from China, Brazil, Australia and many countries in Europe.

“The increase comes despite the reduction in flights due to the refurbishment and upgrading of the runways at Dubai International, which is testament to the work conducted by Dubai Airports and our industry partners in ensuring minimal disruption.”

Saudi Arabia continued to be Dubai’s primary source market, while there was particularly strong growth from China, with visitor numbers from the world’s most populous nation up 26%.

Since the end of June 2013, Dubai has added more than 7000 hotel rooms to its inventory, with the total now standing at 88,680 across 634 establishments.