While hotel operators in Dubai are not expecting Ramadan Iftar and room bookings to be as high as the 2008 peak, they are offering discounts of up to 30 percent in a bid to maintain 2009 levels, according to a report by Arabian Business.
Janet Fitzner, general manager of the Radisson Blu Hotel in Dubai Deira Creek, said that while the hotel is “projecting a slight decrease in covers compared to 2008,” she reported that Iftar “booking patterns are quite similar and stable compared to last year.”
In a bid to equal 2009 booking levels, hotels have begun implementing discounts in order to attract business this year.
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“We are about to launch our Ramandan and Eid promotion across our GCC and Egypt properties to attract leisure travellers who plan to travel during Ramadan and the Eid weekend. Hilton Worldwide properties within the region, including the nine UAE properties, will be offering up to 30 percent discounts,” a spokesperson from the Hilton hotel group said in a statement.
The Kempinski Hotel Mall of the Emirates will be operating Iftar at its 1,000-seat restaurant overlooking the slopes of the iconic Ski Dubai. A spokesperson from the hotel said that “Ramadan is a month that we rely more on our food and beverage revenue rather than the rooms since Iftar and sohour offers are the key revenue drivers.”
Despite this, the hotel is looking to attract room bookings and while reservations are “not at all comparable to 2008 since that year was the best year for all hotels in Dubai,” the hotel is offering corporate discounts of ten percent for groups of ten or more.
A worldwide review of hotel data by STR Global shows room occupancy in the region hit 61.3 percent last year, with the average room rate in the region standing at $202. Middle East hotels also registered the highest occupancy in the world and revenue per available room (RevPAR), the hotel industry’s measuring stick for fiscal health, hit $124, a whopping $44 higher than that seen in Europe, the report added.
However, the most recent STR Global data for June this year found that while the Middle East continued to rank top worldwide in revPAR terms, with a rate of $91.83, occupancy across the region dropped by 1.9 percent to 62.4 percent, a decline attributed to new hotel stock entering the market.
In Dubai, the Gulf’s trade and tourism hub, revPAR levels dropped 3.5 percent to $166.16 in June. Dubai occupancy remained strong at 73.1 percent, showing a six percent rise on the same period a year earlier, showing tourism has begun to bounce back from last year’s slump.
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