The unparalleled growth witnessed in the hospitality sector in Saudi Arabia over the last few years has created a huge increase in demand for new hotels and refurbishment of the existing ones.
The positive upturn in the Kingdom's hospitality sector triggered by an influx of domestic and religious travel, which is approximately 2.8 million more than in 2010, offers unmatched growth potential for the development of interiors, hotel refurbishment, and the fit-outs sector. Many of the major hotel chains in Jeddah, Makkah and Madinah have embarked on a strategy of penetration, expansion and renovation of hospitality projects in the face of increased competition and demand for high-quality services, modern interiors and electronics by the international traveler.
According to a recent Ventures Middle East 2012 report about trends in the GCC interior contracting and fit-out market, hotel projects likely to be completed in 2012 in the GCC will involve an interior spend of $1.650 million – approximately 22.5 percent of total project costs of $7,334 million, with Saudi Arabia's interiors and fit-out sector growing twice as quickly as the UAEs with it increasing by 125 percent to a value of $3.5 billion in the current year.
For the Kingdom's hospitality sector, this means that hotels are likely to spend heavily on renovation and refurbishment as they look to regain lost occupancies and counter the competition from the rising supply of new hotels with upgrades to existing ones proving to be a growing opportunity for the interiors as well as the hotel electronics market.
The Saudi Gazette
13 November
