“If you take those countries, what do they have in common; they are still security or political concerns, but they have a huge demand for business because they generate a lot of money from oil and they are re-injecting this money into infrastructure, so in that respect business people are ready to pay premium for good hotel with reasonable level of security and comfort,” said Doizelet.
Doizelet said that ADR was performing well in Algiers, with rates double or triple those in Tunis, for example, because of a “strong demand and a very tiny supply”.
“It’s not because you are not a tourist haven that you are not a suitable market for hotels,” he added.
Also last month, In the run-up to a major investment conference in Washington, traders at Iraq's stock exchange told foreign investors to concentrate on banks and hotels, according to a report by AFP.
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Investment firm Al-Jawhara senior broker Ali Jamal said “the door is being opened for investment in tourism”.
“New hotels are being built and existing ones are being refurbished,” he told the AFP.
"Hotels and banks will do well - once the security situation gets better, their value will rise at an extraordinary rate," predicted Salman Hassan Salman al-Khafaji, who said he had made a profit of 50 million Iraqi dinars (US $43,000) on the markets so far this year.
"Foreigners should invest in tourism -- it will definitely get better here."
For a detailed update on the hotel market in Iraq, see the November issue of Hotelier Middle East
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