Hotels in Dubai continued to surpass previous year performances as regional and international tourists flock to the city for the 18th Dubai Shopping Festival, 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 3rd January to 3rd February. 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 event.
Hotel occupancies across the city surged as a result to 89.6%, up 4.2 percentage points from last year, while Average Room Rates (ARR) grew 5.0% to US$359.39. The resulting 10.2% growth in Revenue per Available Room (RevPAR) to US$321.85, along with a 6.5% increase in food and beverage revenues, boosted Total Revenue per Available Room (TRevPAR) to US$522.92, the highest of the markets surveyed. On the bottom line, this resulted in a 14.5% growth in Gross Operating Profits per Available Room (GOPPAR) rising to US$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%. However, ARR levels have continued to fall, dropping 10.7% in January to US$167.77, dragging RevPAR down by 5.3% to US$113.05. In addition, food and beverage revenues also dropped roughly 15% during the month, causing TRevPAR to drop 9.6% to US$241.16. A 2.0 percentage point increase in payroll added further stress on the bottom line profits with GOPPAR dropping 4.4% to US$71.16.
“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 capitalise these events to improve top line performances, simply due to the competition.” commented Peter Goddard, Managing Director at TRI Hospitality Consulting.
In Kuwait, hotels registered a 6.1 percentage point increase in occupancy to 58.0% as both corporate and leisure demand surged during the month. ARR increased 10.2% to US$273.54, lifting RevPAR 23.3% to US$155.58. The surge in visitors from the north-eastern region of Saudi Arabia during the extended holidays also resulted in increased spending on food and beverage, boosting F&B revenues by 47.1% during the month.
TRevPAR was up by 36.0% to US$362.29 and GOPPAR was higher by 65.5% at US$182.55 in January.
