Ernst and Young’s Hotel Benchmark Survey revealed that Beirut’s hotel occupancy rate declined by 4 percentage points (pp) year-on-year to reach 36% in July 2014, recording a six-month low. This came as a result of 3 explosions that occurred at the end of June, leading tourists to leave the country. The lower occupancy rate, in turn, resulted in Revenue per Average Room (RevPAR) dropping by 4.7% to $62. However, Average room rate (ARR) added 4.9% y-o-y to $170.
Taking into account the first seven months of 2014, Lebanon’s occupancy rate fell by 7 pp to reach 48%, compared to 55% in the same period of 2013. Likewise, ARR and RevPAR witnessed an annual decline of 5.3% and 18.3% to $161 and $77.
On a regional level and for the month of July alone, Madina (Saudi Arabia) experienced the highest surge of 18 pp y-o-y in occupancy rate to 74%, following the month of Ramadan. In contrast, Amman (Jordan) saw the worst drop of 11 pp to 33%.
In terms of Revenue per Available Room, Cairo (Egypt) experienced the best increase of 54% compared to the same month the prior year, to $21, after the election of a new president stabilized political condition. Amman was also the worst performer in RevPAR, where it underwent a plunge of 252% to $62.
Looking at Average Room Rate the best and worst performers were respectively Jeddah (Saudi Arabia), whose ARR increased by 9.4% to $279, and Cairo, whose ARR lost 9.2% to $94.
Beirut Occupancy Rates
Source: E&Y Hotel Benchmark Survey