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Home / Features / Dubai tourism industry posts impressive performance

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Dubai tourism industry posts impressive performance

The Dubai Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing announced the emirate’s tourism industry’s impressive performance in the first three quarters of 2011, thereby consolidating the position of Dubai on the world tourism map. Mr. Khalid A bin Sulayem, DTCM Director General, said: “The stellar performance of Dubai’s tourism industry is a testimony to the aggressive promotional and marketing drive that the department has been pursuing to enhance the number of tourists to the destination by tapping established and emerging markets across the world. The impressive gains made during the January-September period this year also reflect the inspiring public-private sector partnership to tap the tourism potential of Dubai.” Dubai hotels played host 6.64 million guests in the first three quarters of 2011, up by 11% compared with the corresponding period last year. The guest nights rose by 26% to reach 23.68 million, while the average length of stay increased by 14% during the same period. Revenues of hotels and hotel apartments increased by 19% to cross the AED10.96 billion, with the share the revenues of hotels increasing by 20% and that of hotel apartments by 13%. The number of hotel establishments increased by 1% to 573 while the total hotel rooms and flats jumped up by 7% to reach 73,522. The average occupancy levels of hotel room and flat increased by five and 7%, respectively, and stood at 72% and 74%, respectively. He announced the results of Dubai’s hotel establishments during the three quarters of 2011 on the sidelines of the World Travel Market (WTM) in London where DTCM, along with its 132 co-participants, have put up a strong presence. Mr. Bin Sulayem listed out various initiatives that DTCM launched this year including its strong participation in the ITB show in Berlin and Arabian Travel Market (ATM) in addition to the exclusive Dubai Road shows in different parts of the world. Kids Go Free promotion and Definitely Dubai programme have also helped in raising awareness about Dubai and in increasing the number of visitors to Dubai, he added. Dubai’s hotel establishments recorded 14% growth during the first quarter of 2011, reaching 2.38 million up from 2.09 million recorded in the first quarter of 2010. Of this, 1.84 million guests stayed in hotels and 533,190 people stayed in hotel apartments. Guest nights that measure the average length of stay rose 35% rising to 8.46 million in the first quarter of this year, up from 6.24 million recorded during the corresponding period last year. This reflects a strong growth in average length of stay in Dubai’s hotels to nearly four days. Hotel establishment revenues recorded a 16% during the same period to AED4.36 billion, rising from Dh3.75 billion. Of this, hotels generated AED3.73 billion and hotel apartments generated AED623.87 million. The total number of rooms available in Dubai rose to 72,419 at the end of the first quarter of 2011, compared to 64,143 recorded at the end of the first quarter of 2010. Despite this, hotel occupancy rose by three percentage points to 79%, up from 76%. However, hotel apartment occupancy rose by six percentage points to 79% up from 73%. Dubai has 573 hotels and hotel apartments including 385 hotels and 188 hotel apartments in the first quarter 2011. First Half 2011 performance In the first half of 2011, Dubai hotel establishments showed a remarkable increase in the guest occupancy levels, guest nights and revenues, compared with corresponding period last year. The number of guests in Dubai hotel establishments in the period from January to June this year was 4,585,019, an increase of 10% compared with the corresponding period last year. Hotels took 3,626,960 guests, an increase of 9% over last year’s figures, while 958,059 guests stayed with the hotel apartments, recording 11% increase over the last year period. DTCM data also revealed the total guest nights increasing by 31% to reach the 16.26 million mark. Out of this, 11.53 million guest nights were notched up by hotels, posting a 29% increase over the 2010 first half. For the hotel apartments, it was 4.73 million guest nights, an increase of 34%. The average room occupancy level for hotel rooms was 76%, up by 4% compared with the previous year. Similarly, the hotel apartments recorded the average flat occupancy level of 76% with a 7% increase over the last year period. The average length of stay of guests at hotels was 3.2 days during this period, an increase of 18%, while the average stay in hotel apartments stood at 4.9 days compared to 4.1 days during the same period last year, an increase of 21%. The total revenues of hotels and hotel apartments during the first half of 2011 was over AED8.05 billion, an increase of 18% over the corresponding period last year. Of this, about AED7 billion came from the hotels and AED1.1 billion from the hotel apartments. The number of hotels and hotel apartments also recorded a modest increase of one per cent to reach the number of 573. The number of rooms and flats went up by 9% to 73,254. There was an increase of 4% in the number of operating hotels which stood at 386, while the number of hotel apartments went down by 4% to 187.

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