The Middle East/Africa region reported year-end decreases in all three key measurements when reported in U.S. dollars, according to data compiled by STR Global.

The region’s occupancy in 2009 dropped 10.9 percent to 62.0 percent; average daily rate decreased 2.7 percent to US$153.91; and revenue per available room decreased 13.3 percent to US$95.44.

Highlights among the region’s key markets include (year-over-year comparisons, all currency in U.S. dollars):

• Beirut, Lebanon, reported the largest increases in all three key metrics for the year. The market’s occupancy rose 27.5 percent to 70.9 percent, ADR increased 27.2 percent to US$205.23, and RevPAR jumped 62.1 percent to US$145.53.
• Muscat, Oman, posted the largest occupancy decrease, falling 21.1 percent to 53.6 percent, followed by Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, with a 17.9-percent decrease to 58.3 percent.
• Only three markets experienced ADR decreases: Dubai, United Arab Emirates (-23.7 percent to US$235.48); Istanbul, Turkey (-12.2 percent to US$199.30); and Cairo, Egypt (-3.3 percent to US$128.86).
• Dubai reported the largest RevPAR decrease, falling 31.4 percent to US$163.31, followed by Istanbul (-19.5 percent to US$127.47).

December 2009

Overall in December, the region’s occupancy fell 2.4 percent to 56.8 percent, ADR dropped 5.6 percent to US$166.53, and RevPAR was down 7.9 percent to US$94.53.

“The Middle East/Africa region currently lags behind the other world regions in terms of RevPAR recovery”, said Elizabeth Randall, managing director of STR Global. “However, as the region entered the downturn later than Europe, Asia/Pacific and North America, we believe this only to be a time lag until the Middle East/Africa region follows the other regions on the recovery path. Within the region, the African hotels performed better with increases in ADR and RevPAR for the month of December. Overall, the Middle East Africa region finished 2009 with 13.3-percent RevPAR decline but still reported the highest RevPAR (US$95.44) of all world region”.

Among the key markets in the region, Riyadh reported the largest occupancy increase, rising 18.9 percent to 52.6 percent, followed by Istanbul (+15.1 percent to 54.2 percent) and Amman, Jordan (+13.9 percent to 50.9 percent). Two markets ended the month with double-digit occupancy decreases: Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (-21.2 percent to 52.9 percent), and Beirut (-11.6 percent to 69.1 percent).

Cape Town, South Africa (+35.5 percent to US$167.48), and Johannesburg, South Africa (+35.5 percent to US$92.05), reported the largest ADR increases for the month. Muscat experienced the largest ADR decrease, falling 30.0 percent to US$285.63.

Cape Town led the RevPAR increases, jumping 37.1 percent to US$110.34. Muscat fell 33.4 percent to US$166.61, reporting the largest RevPAR decrease for the month.

About STR Global:

STR Global provides clients-including hotel operators, developers, financiers, analysts and suppliers to the hotel industry-access to hotel research with regular and custom reports covering Europe, Middle East, Africa, Asia/Pacific and South America. STR Global provides a single source of global hotel data covering daily and monthly performance data, segmentation data, forecasts, annual profitability, pipeline and census information. Hotel operators can join the surveys on a complimentary basis and benefit from free industry data. STR Global is part of the STR family of companies and is proudly associated with STR, RRC Associates, STR Analytics and HotelNewsNow.com. For more information, please visit www.strglobal.com.