Hotels in Dubai continued to surpass previous year performances as regional and international tourists flock to the city for the Dubai Shopping Festival (DSF), boosting key performance indicators across the market, according to the latest HotStats survey of full service four and five star hotels by TRI Hospitality Consulting.
Monthly performance indicators for Dubai hotels beat last year figures as the city hosted another edition of its successful month long shopping festival from January 3 to February 3.
Although exact number of visitors is not available yet, some 4.7 million visitors were expected to arrive in the city during this year's shopping event.
Hotel occupancies across the city surged as a result to 89.6 per cent, up 4.2 percentage points from last year, while Average Room Rates (ARR) grew 5 per cent to $359.39.
The resulting 10.2 per cent growth in Revenue per Available Room (RevPAR) to $321.85, along with a 6.5 per cent increase in food and beverage revenues, boosted Total Revenue per Available Room (TRevPAR) to $522.92, the highest of the markets surveyed.
On the bottom line, this resulted in a 14.5 per cent growth in gross operating profits per available room (GOPPAR) rising to $279.30.
Hotels in Abu Dhabi also benefitted from the overflow demand from shopping festival as regional and international travellers included the capital to their itinerary with hotels.
Consequently, hotels in the capital registered a 10.8 percentage point increase in occupancy to 71.7 per cent in January.
"The DSF has got better and better every year, and this time is no exception. This mega-event offers a perfect start to the year for the tourism establishments in the city, and helps bridge the gap between the end of year holidays and European winter breaks. Abu Dhabi too received strong inflow of visitors, both regional leisure travellers and international guests attending events such as the Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week which was expected to attract over 30,000 delegates. However despite stronger demand, hotels in the capital have failed to capitalize these events to improve top line performances, simply due to the competition," said Peter Goddard, Managing Director at TRI Hospitality Consulting.
Times of Oman
6 March
