Hotels in Jeddah and Riyadh remained firm despite global economic turmoil, said Peter Goddard, managing director of TRI Hospitality Consulting in Dubai, though they registered a fall last October. In Jeddah, occupancy dropped two percentage points to 73.8 percent while ARR posted an increase of 8.5 percent and stood at $196.08. Riyadh achieved an occupancy of 69 percent which is 2.4 percentage points below the previous year. Average room rates (ARR) in Riyadh remained relatively stable at $274.97 while revenues and profitability reported marginal decline during the period. GOP PAR for Riyadh hotels was reported at $176.48 which is 5.2 percent below the same period in the previous year. “Hotels in Jeddah and Riyadh have shown strong resilience in the face of the ongoing global economic problems mainly due to the strong demand originating from the corporate and government segments. The increase in ARR in Jeddah is attributed to the Corniche properties increasing the rates on the back of constant occupancy levels, a move which was also followed by city based hotels,” Goddard said. Elsewhere, Abu Dhabi registered the largest increase in occupancy in the region, growing by 9.7 percentage point to 82.8 percent in October 2011 and moving closer to Dubai which saw occupancy increase to 87.3 percent during the month. Hotels in Dubai saw occupancy levels soar to 87.3 percent assisted by the surge in demand during the week-long GITEX Technology Week and GITEX Shopper which saw visitor numbers touch 169,018 this year. “Occupancies across regional destinations typically improve from October as the region experiences the exit of hot summer months and the onset of cooler weather conditions. This is when these markets see the leisure demand pick up and large commercial centers witness an increase in corporate and MICE demand, which benefits major MICE destinations such as Dubai and Abu Dhabi,” Goddard further said. TRevPAR achieved double digit growth in October to reach $350.39, boosting GOP PAR by 84 per cent from $87.23 in the previous month (September) to $159.86 during the month. “The growth in demand has helped Dubai hotels to achieve occupancy levels comparable to or perhaps slightly better than 2007 when the market was reaching its peak. DTCM statistics for October 2007 indicate an occupancy rate of 84.58 per cent for the five and four-star markets. However, the latest HotStats survey within these markets indicate that the hotels are currently achieving stronger demand levels although the rates achieved are much lower than those in the boom time,” added Goddard.
