According to Ernst & Young Middle East hotel benchmark survey, the occupancy rate in Beirut’s 4- and 5-star hotels reached 36.2% percentage points (pp) by February 2023, down from last year’s percentage of 39%. It is unfortunate that Lebanon has the lowest hotel occupancy rate among all Arab countries, despite his favorable Mediterranean weather, cheaper tourism, as well as attractive winter season. In fact, we assume that Lebanon is most likely welcoming expats rather than tourists in the high season of holidays and summer due to high country risk.
In more details, the average room rate in dollars currency in Lebanon has decreased significantly by 40% to stand at $41 while the RevPAR dropped by 44.3% to reach $15 for the month of February 2023. Moreover, the average room rate in Lebanese pound has increased significantly by 155.7% due to the sharp deterioration of the national currency despite the drop in room rate in dollars prices. In details, the average room rate in LBP reached LBP 3,615,018 in February 2023 while RevPAR (Revenue per available room) jumped by 137.4% from LBP 551,630 in February 2022 to LBP 1,309,411 in February 2023.
On a regional level, hospitality markets in Makkah and Cairo City witnessed an increase across all performance indicators in February 2023 compared to February 2022. In more details, the occupancy rates in Makkah added 40.7% to reach 87.7% while Cairo city occupancy rates added 7.2% to reach 75.1%. Makkah’s hospitality sector observed a remarkable RevPAR growth of 227.7% from $45 in February 2022 to $147 in February 2023. Meanwhile, average room rate in Makkah jumped by 75.5% from $96 in February 2022 to $168 by February 2023. As for Cairo – City, several international events along with the relaunch of tourism campaigns such as “Follow the Sun” are expected to have boosted the sector performance during the period. Average room rate added 136.3% from $58 in February 2022 to $138 in February 2023 which resulted in a notable RevPAR growth of 161.2% from $40 to $103 during the same period.
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