Dubai hotels rank top in average room rates

Dubai ranked highest globally in terms of average room rate of hotels for August, which hit the $290 (Dh1,064) mark in August, according to a report by STR Global, the agency monitoring hotel performance trends worldwide.

This was followed by Paris at $280 and New York in the third place at $261.

Measuring the performance of hotels in Africa and the Middle East, the report said Dubai's leading position of having the highest hotel occupancy rate, on the other hand, was beaten by New York, which was first in this category recording 83 per cent occupancy levels in the same period.

Dubai hotels, meanwhile, ran on 81.6 per cent occupancy levels in August.

According to the STR Global report, Dubai also ranked first in terms of average revenues per room, which rested at $237, followed by Paris at $217, New York at $216, London at $185, and Rome in the fifth position at $154. "Expect big tourism developments in the emirate in the near future," said Khalid Ahmed bin Sulayem, Director-General of Dubai's Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing, or DTCM, during the World Travel Market in London recently.

"The last few weeks have seen the opening of many hotel and tourism projects in Dubai, which together have hugely contributed to the tourism products of the emirate, such as the opening of Atlantis Hotel and The Dubai Mall," he added.

He said the near future will witness big tourist developments in Dubai, highlighting the five international markets that have showed tremendous increase in tourist numbers in Dubai from 2003 to 2007.

These include Japan, Italy, Australia, New Zealand and Germany.
According to the DTCM data, the number of hotels operating in Dubai currently rest at 343, with the total number of rooms totalling up to 38,748, including 50 five-star hotels, 53 four-star hotels, 47 three-stars hotels, 42 celebrity hotels, 132 one-star category hotels, and 19 hotels in the Guest House category with 484 rooms.