The Middle East and Africa hospitality market is witnessing solid growth with a total of 218,800 rooms under construction in the region, said a report.

Of this, about 159,922 rooms in 560 projects are under contract in the Middle East region, stated STR, a leading provider of global hotel data, in its November 2016 Pipeline Report.

The under-contract data includes projects in the in-construction, final planning and planning stages but does not include projects in the unconfirmed stage.

Among the MEA countries, Saudi Arabia topped the list with most rooms (37,864 rooms in 83 hotels) in the in-construction stage followed by the UAE with 26,889 rooms in 97 hotels.

Two other countries in the region reported more than 5,000 rooms in construction - Qatar with 8,748 rooms in 36 hotels and Egypt (5,645 rooms in 16 hotels), stated the STR report.

The under-contract total in the Middle East represents a 10.8 per cent increase in rooms compared to the same period last year. Specifically in the in-construction phase, the Middle East reported 85,448 rooms in 267 hotels, up 3.6 per cent over the number of rooms last year.

On the total 58,878 rooms in 316 projects under contract in Africa region, the STR report said it represented a 10.9 per cent increase in rooms compared to November 2015.

Specifically in the in-construction phase, Africa reported 30,043 rooms in 165 hotels. Based on the number of rooms, that is a 10.9 per cent increase in year-on-year comparisons, it added.-TradeArabia News Service