An additional 22,000 hotel rooms will be available in Dubai by the end of 2008, helping the fast-growing tourism destination overcome part of its room shortage that is blamed for hampering visitor growth. Dubai had a total of 415 hotels and furnished apartments last year, offering about 40,000 rooms in various categories, according to the Department of Tour-ism and Commerce Marketing (DTCM). "By the end of 2008 we will have about 22,000 more hotel rooms available," Khalifa Ali Buamaim, DTCM's director of overseas promotions, told Gulf News yesterday. Dubai hotels received about 6.5 million guests in 2006 compared with 6.1 million a year before.
