More than 215,000 hotel rooms were under contract in the Middle East and Africa in September 2016, according to an STR report.

As many as 159,127 rooms in 555 projects were under contract in the Middle East and 56,858 rooms in 303 projects were under contract in Africa, the STR September 2016 Pipeline Report  report said.

Under contract data includes projects in the in construction, final planning and planning stages but does not include projects in the unconfirmed stage, STR said.

The under contract total in the Middle East represents a 14.8 per cent increase in rooms compared with September 2015.

In the in construction phase, the Middle East reported 83,416 rooms in 257 hotels, an 8.5 per cent increase in year-over-year comparisons, the report said.

The under contract total in Africa represents an 8.3 per cent increase in rooms under contract compared with September 2015. Specifically in the in construction phase, Africa reported 29,006 rooms in 154 hotels, a 7.8 per cent increase in year-over-year comparisons.

Among the countries in the Middle East and Africa, Saudi Arabia reported the most rooms in construction with 36,545 rooms in 78 hotels. The UAE followed with 26,552 rooms in 94 hotels. Two other countries each reported more than 5,000 rooms in construction: Qatar (7,889 rooms in 33 hotels) and Egypt (5,800 rooms in 17 hotels), it said. - TradeArabia News Service