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Issue No 48, August 2007 |
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Dubai to have additional 22,000 hotel rooms by end 2008
Recently released reports quote Mr. Khalifa Ali Buaim, Director of Overseas Promotions in the Dubai Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DTCM), that an additional 22,000 hotel rooms will be available in Dubai by the end of 2008.
The reports quote Mr. Ali Buaim further as follows:
We could have attracted more tourists in 2006 if we did not have a shortage of hotel rooms.
DTCM will target markets such as South Korea and Spain to attract more visitors. The number of hotels will increase from 303 to 325 this year, providing an additional
8,370 rooms, and seven new hotel apartments will add
1,936 rooms.
City hotels are reporting high occupancy rates during Dubai Summer Surprises, a 10 week tourism and shopping initiative aimed at boosting retail sales and foreign visitor arrivals. This summer we are doing better than last year. Many hotels are reporting 90 per cent occupancy.
The following statistics were released by DTCM:
Dubai hotels received about 6.5 million guests in 2006
compared with 6.1 million a year before.
Dubai had a total of 415 hotels and furnished apartments last year, offering about 40,000 rooms in various categories.
Arrivals from certain important markets did not improve last year. The number of people from Russia, Central Asia and Baltic countries staying at Dubai hotels was 422,229, almost unchanged from
2005.
There was only marginal growth in arrivals from several other markets. Top source markets include Britain, Germany, India and Saudi Arabia.
The tourism department projects the number of hotel rooms to increase to 93,867 in 2016 when
31 properties planned as part of the Dh100- billion Bawadi project in Dubailand will be ready. Bawadi will have 29,000 hotel rooms, including
6,500 in the Asia-Asia, the world’s biggest planned hotel.
Dubai will count 389 hotels and 131 hotel apartments by the end of 2015.
The current hotel shortage has pushed room tariffs and average occupancy rates high in Dubai. |
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