Beirut’s Hotel Occupancy Rate Reached 56% by August 2016

According to Ernest and Young’s Hotel Benchmark Survey, most of the countries in the MENA region observed a downward trend in hotel occupancy rate levels by August 2016. As for Lebanon, although the number of tourists is processing this year, it seems like tourists are preferring hotels outside Beirut or below 4 stars. As such, Beirut’s hotel occupancy rate for 4 and 5- star hotels fell from 58% by August 2015 to 56% by August 2016. This fall in hotel occupancy rate was accompanied with a decrease in room rates, where average rate per room dropped by 17.5% y-o-y from $166 by August 2015 to $137 by August 2016. Accordingly, revenue per available room also declined 19.9% y-o-y to $78 by August 2016.

Cairo maintained its positive performance during the first 8 months of the year mainly due to the occurrence of Mediconex exhibition in April, which is the largest 3-day healthcare event in Egypt and North Africa and which usually attracts almost 10,000 visitors. Hence, hotel occupancy rate in the Egyptian capital reached 62% by August 2016, up by 15p.p from the same period last year. This increase was coupled with respective rises of 16.2% and 51.5% in the average rate per room and the revenue per available room, which reached $128 and $80, respectively. Moreover, Ras Al-Khaimah witnessed an improvement in hotel occupancy rates, which reached 71.6%. Still, average room rates dropped 3%  to $156, while revenue per available room rose 13.5% to stand at $113.

Over the same period, the largest loss in 4 and 5 star hotels’ occupancy rate was recorded in Madina, Saudi Arabia, which lost 14 p.p yearly to 63% followed by Kuwait which also registered a 10 p.p. y-o-y decrease to 38% by August 2016.

On a monthly basis, Beirut’s hotel occupancy rates remained stable at 63%, the highest level seen since the beginning of the year. Moreover, monthly occupancy rates slightly fell from 64% in August 2015.

Monthly Hotel Occupancy Rates in Lebanon

Beirut’s Hotel Occupancy Rate Reached 56% by August 2016

Source: E&Y Middle East Hotel Benchmark Survey

 

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