Source: STR Global

The Middle East/Africa region reported positive performance results in March 2012 when reported in U.S. dollars, according to data compiled by STR Global.

In March 2012, the region"s occupancy jumped 14.6 percent to 65.1 percent, its average daily rate increased 3.3 percent to US$175.33 and its revenue per available room jumped 18.4 percent to US$114.07.

"During March, the hotels across Middle East, Northern and Southern Africa reported improving occupancy levels", said Elizabeth Randall, managing director of STR Global. "We report a 71 percent increase (19.6 percentage points) in Northern Africa"s occupancy, the absolute occupancy is 47 percent. The growth in occupancy is influencing RevPAR, however, there is continued pressure on average room rates. In other parts of the region, signs of stabilisation can be seen in the strong RevPAR improvements in Bahrain, Lebanon and Jordan. Additional increases of more than 20 percent were reported by Saudi Arabia and Oman, as well".

Highlights among the region"s key markets for March 2012 include (year-over-year comparisons, all currency in U.S. dollars):

  • Manama, Bahrain, jumped 112.1 percent in occupancy to 45.1 percent, reporting the largest increase in that metric, followed by Cairo, Egypt (+96.9 percent to 45.7 percent), and Amman, Jordan (+54.6 percent to 80.9 percent).
  • Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, reported the largest occupancy decrease, falling 6.9 percent to 66.2 percent, followed by Doha, Qatar, with a 6.5-percent decrease to 62.8 percent.
  • Manama increased 14.6 percent in ADR to US$217.34, achieving the largest increase in that metric.
  • Cape Town, South Africa (-8.5 percent to US$137.35), and Cairo (-7.9 percent to US$107.89), posted the largest ADR decreases for the month.
  • Three markets achieved RevPAR increases of more than 30 percent: Manama (+143.1 percent to US$97.96); Cairo (+81.3 percent to US$49.26); Amman (+54.7 percent to US$118.81); and Beirut, Lebanon (+42.1 percent to US$122.83).
  • Abu Dhabi reported the only double-digit RevPAR decrease, falling 11.5 percent to US$109.02.

In the first quarter of 2012 the region"s occupancy rose 8.9 percent to 60.9 percent, its ADR was virtually flat with a 0.9-percent increase to US$175.97 and its RevPAR increased 9.9 percent to US$107.23.

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, STR Analytics and Hotel News Now. For more information, please visit www.strglobal.com.

Konstanze Auernheimer (STR Global)
Director of Marketing
+44 (0)207 922 1961
STR Global

Related