Tourist movement and hotel occupancy levels in Dubai have kept up the tempo during the second week of August.
Five-star beach hotels recorded 97 percent occupancy, while five-star city hotels posted 76 percent occupancy during the second week of August. Four-star hotels recorded 81 percent occupancy.
Mr. Khalid A bin Sulayem, Director General of Dubai Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DTCM), said Dubai hotel industry received 3.85 million guests in the first half of 2009, a five percent increase compared with the same period last year.
He said Dubai presently has 58,147 hotel rooms (40,943 hotel rooms and 17,204 hotel apartment rooms), which is 17 per cent increase compared with the last year’s figure of 49,656 hotel rooms.
He said the department organised a number of promotional and marketing programmes to strengthen tourism in the summer season. One of the programmes is a campaign that was launched on July 1 in cooperation with the hotels and shopping malls in the emirate. This campaign targeted several markets and focused on GCC countries. It will continue until September 20.
Mr. bin Sulayem said Dubai’s performance was the best among the results of other tourist destinations considering the challenges that travel and tourism sector experienced due to the economic downturn and Swine Flu and restrictions imposed due to H1N1. However, Dubai continues to maintain its strong position due to the efforts made by both the public and private sectors and due to the varied tourism product offering available in the emirate.
