Viability director Guy Wilkinson undertook three months of research into GCC pipeline. Viability director Guy Wilkinson undertook three months of research into GCC pipeline.

Nearly half of the hotels in the GCC hotel development pipeline have been delayed by between one and four years.

This is the latest finding from hospitality consulting firm Viability, which presented the results of its annual GCC future hotel survey at HOTEC Middle East.

Viability director Guy Wilkinson said that 48% of the hotels surveyed that were also contained in the 2009 research had been delayed (compared to 38% last year — 29% alone were put back by a year).

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Forty two other hotel projects comprising 11,000 rooms were ‘on hold’ with no firm recommencement date.

A further 25 hotel projects with more than 5,400 rooms had been cancelled since the 2009 rankings

Overall the GCC hotel development pipeline is down by 20%. There are 282 new properties due to open from 2010 to 2015, down from 325 in 2009.