Beirut Occupancy Rate Increased to 60% in August 2014

Ernst and Young’s Hotel Benchmark Survey revealed that Beirut’s hotel occupancy rate increased by 12 percentage points (pp) year-on-year (y-o-y) to stand at 60% in August 2014. This triggered Revenue per Average Room (RevPAR) to rise by 23.9%, compared to August 2013, to $104. The improvement in Beirut’s hospitality sector was attributed to the Lebanon Water Festival, which involves activities such as diving, water skiing, swimming, sailing wind-surfing and boating, and which draw many professionals from abroad. However, Average room rate (ARR) decreased marginally by 0.3% y-o-y to $171.

Taking into account the first eight months of 2014, Lebanon’s occupancy rate fell by 5 pp to reach 49%, compared to 54% in the same period of 2013. Likewise, ARR and RevPAR witnessed an annual decline of 4.5% and 13.6% to $162 and $81, respectively.

On a regional level and for the month of August alone, Cairo (Egypt) experienced the best growth in its hospitality sector caused by the stabilizing security situation. Egypt’s occupancy rate surged by an annual 38 pp to 52% in August 2014. Similarly, its ARR went up by 23.7% to $109 and its RevPAR jumped from $13 in August 2013 to $57 in August 2014.

In contrast, Makkah (Saudi Arabia) was the worst performer in August, where it was the only city in the survey to experience a decrease in its occupancy rate dropping by 4 pp to 39%. Likewise, ARR and RevPAR plunged by 66.8% and 69.4% y-o-y, to $195 and $78, respectively. This was mostly caused by the fact that in 2013 the holy month of Ramadan was partly observed during August.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *