Dubai to add 20,000 more hotel rooms by 2016

Tourism authorities in Dubai are expecting the emirate to add 20,000 more hotel rooms by 2016 and say it is on track to reach 155,000 rooms by 2020.

According to The National, Issam Kazim, CEO of Dubai Corporation for Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DTCM), revealed the figures at the Destination Dubai conference yesterday, saying the growth would come despite economic troubles around the country and a slowdown in the growth of the number of tourists from countries such as Russia.

“We saw over 10% [growth] in 2013 and I think last year was slightly below that, but definitely we are on track to deliver 20 million [tourists] by 2020,” he reportedly said. “We are well under way to deliver another roughly 20,000 additional rooms by 2016.”

By the end 2014, Dubai had approximately 90,000 hotel rooms, having added roughly 7000 over the course of the year.

DCTCM also revealed that it received over 51 applications for three- and four-star hotels up November, on the back of incentives for developers.

“We will still have, I think, a major skew towards five-star, but there will be a huge number of three, four-star [hotels] coming to market,” said Kazim, according to The National, adding that authorities were focusing on growing its key source markets, Saudi Arabia, India, UK, US, Russia and China.