Middle East/Africa hotel construction rises 45.5%

There are 693 hotels totalling 176,612 rooms under contract in the Middle East/Africa region, according to the July 2015 STR Global construction pipeline report.

This represents a 19.5% increase in rooms under contract compared with July 2014 and a 45.4% year-over-year increase in rooms under construction.

The region reported 98,831 rooms in 381 hotels under construction for the month.

Among the chain scale segments, the upper upscale segment accounted for the largest portion of rooms in the under contract stage, 31.6% with 55,789 rooms.

Two other segments each accounted for more than 15% of rooms under contract: upscale (20.2% with 35,734 rooms) and luxury (15.5% with 27,325 rooms).

The upper upscale segment made up the largest portion of rooms under construction, 33.9% with 33,491 rooms.

Three other segments each accounted for more than 15% of rooms in construction: unaffiliated (20.5% with 20,268 rooms); upscale (17.6% with 17,378 rooms); and luxury (16.4% with 16,212 rooms).

The economy segment accounted for the smallest portion of rooms under contract (0.5% with 839 rooms) and in construction (0.4% with 401 rooms).

The under contract data includes projects in the in construction, final planning and planning stages, but does not include projects in the unconfirmed stage.