MENA Hotel Performances Bounce Back

Many hotel markets in the Middle East & North Africa (MENA) region bounce back in September with business travel returning to normality. "Most markets either return to positive growth or at least slow down the decline, as tourism kicks back into gear following the slow period during Ramadan. The peak of summer ends, which means business segments and MICE return to normal, whilst leisure tourism – intra-regional and international – favour this period," states director of development, MKG Hospitality, Vanguelis Panayotis.

Markets that manage growth in September perform very well, especially when considering they are being compared to September 2010 when results were already extremely high. This is mostly evident in the GCC – all countries except the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) and Bahrain, which still struggles with internal issues. Business and leisure travel return particularly strong in Oman, also driven by a number of major conferences, as well as festivals towards the end of the month. Incredibly good hotel Occupancy Rate (OR) growth in Oman of over 15 percentage points, coupled with a 10% increase in Average Daily Rate (ADR) boosts Revenue per Available Room (PAR) by over 45%. Entry visa for 60 countries have also been eased in Oman, now able to be obtain upon arrival. This should surely help drive tourism.

The UAE records an increase of almost 10 points in OR, reaching 73% - one of the region's highest OR. Together with a 4% rise in ADR, this drives RevPAR growth of 20%; Dubai being the emirate's outstanding performer. Qatar records similar growth in RevPAR, but fuelled more by ADR. OR increase by 6 points and ADR by 8.3%. Algeria records good growth in September, over 2 points in OR and over 5% in ADR leading to almost 10% in RevPAR. Finally, Morocco stabilises in September, and even post small growth thanks to much better demand.

Turkey is still the outright best performer in terms of year-to-date growth, with RevPAR up by 21%. In September alone, RevPAR increase by over 25%. Average prices driving growth in both periods. At year-to-date, only Turkey, KSA, Kuwait and the UAE remain positive in the region. According to MKG Hospitality's hotel performance benchmark, overall better results in September have not however helped swing the trend in year-to-date and 12-month rolling period. This time last year, most markets in the MENA region were posting exceptional results, coming off-the-bat of a somewhat delayed economic recovery (when compared to Western Europe and North America).

"Month by month, each of these positive periods come out of the 12 month cycle, and in come the months where political instability governs. In turn, results plummet. Indeed, it will take some time before year-to-date results throughout the region are well and truly in positive mode," adds Panayotis.

Joëlle Renno
MKG Group
+33 (0) 1 56 56 87 95
Hospitality ON

View source