Our hoteliers understand, acknowledge and appreciate the commitment to the sector which is evident from the very highest levels of government and which permeates our business environment, our business legislation and our policy making. Together we are committed to sustainable growth, driving repeat visitors and shaping the global reputation of Dubai as a world leader in tourism and hospitality. As we work to meet our ambitious visitor and tourism targets, we need to ensure that room inventory grows to keep up with the current and future demand.
After a period of over-demand and under-supply, this is now close to alignment and we need to preserve this, continuing the steady flow of more hotels coming on to the market. By 2020 we are targeting an inventory of approximately 160,000 rooms. It’s important to keep stressing that Expo is a landmark moment on Dubai’s continual timeline and not the end of our journey, so we already look beyond 2020 and think of what Dubai will be like in 2030, 2040 and beyond.
Between the end of June 2013 and the end of June this year, the emirate’s room inventory increased by 8.8 per cent, with 31 new hotels and hotel apartments adding 7,188 more rooms – taking us to 88,680 rooms in total. Maintaining this Compound Annual Growth Rate over the next six and a half years will ensure we hit our target. Our pipeline shows that we will add between 15,000 to 25,000 more rooms by the end of 2016 and more are being announced every month, including recent announcements by Marriott, Citymax and Accor.
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Meeting the needs of business and leisure visitors, we know that we need to continue to develop the three and four star segment. As well as working to introduce legislation which incentivises the development of new hotels within these categories, we have been working with the industry to introduce a new hotel classification system. Now being rolled out, this will ensure that travellers have a clearer and more cohesive understanding of the offering of each hotel - from one to five star hotels, or standard to deluxe holiday homes, as well as clear designators indicating types of hotel, like beachfront or business, for example.
As we prepare for the winter season and the exceptional events calendar that we have for the rest of the year, I would like to extend my gratitude to our hotel partners for their cooperation and continued support.
Together, we are helping to shape a city that is well along the road to becoming the world’s most visited: a global events and entertainment capital which showcases the very best the travel and tourism industry, including the hotel sector, has to offer.
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