Dubai has more than 13,300 hotel rooms in the construction pipeline, more than the combined total of the next four largest markets. Latest data from STR Global shows that the emirate has a total of 13,349 rooms in the pipeline while Abu Dhabi, the next largest market for hotel construction, had 5,298 rooms.
Dubai hotels have been able to maintain revenues during 2011 despite a large increase in the number of rooms coming online, Ernst & Young said earlier this month. In a report on the hotel industry in the Middle East and North Africa, it said the emirate had proved its "magnetic attraction as a tourist attraction."
Yousef Wahbah, MENA head of Transaction Real Estate, Ernst & Young, said: "Dubai has been successful in attracting a larger share of the GCC tourism market as well as it is considered a stable and open market, boosting overall performance figures."
Dubai was the sole tourist destination in the region that has shown a rise in occupancy and revenue per available room with a very slight decline in room rates. The study of hotels in six regional cities showed that Dubai saw occupancy increase to 87.3 percent. The Al Habtoor Group, a UAE-based development firm, has confirmed that it will build a $1.33 billion hotel and theater complex on Dubai’s Sheikh Zayed Road.
The new development will be a three-building complex and add over 1,600 rooms to Dubai’s existing hotel scene. The new development will be a three-building complex and add over 1,600 rooms to Dubai’s existing hotel scene. There are currently 13,349 hotel rooms being constructed in Dubai.
