Abu Dhabi hotels saw its occupancy levels hit new high in October registering a total of 182,553 guest arrivals, up 21 per cent compared to last year, according to the emirate's tourism authorities.

The guest nights also rose 17 per cent on the same comparative month to 582,929 and occupancy was up 7 per cent, the Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority (ADTA) said in its October report.

October performance means that in the first 10 months of this year, Abu Dhabi’s hotels and hotel apartments received some 1.69 million guests, which is 15 per cent above the same period last year.

“The signs are good for achieving our 2011 stretch target of 2 million with expected good figures for November resulting from the staging of the third Formula One Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix and with an end-of-year influx anticipated as guests arrive for the New Year’s hosting of the Volvo Ocean Race fleet,” remarked Lawrence Franklin, strategy & policy director, ADTA.

October also recorded a 2 per cent increase in overall revenue which hit Dh410 million ($111.7 million) when compared to October 2010.

This was primarily driven by a strong performance in food and beverage revenue which grew 5 per cent and a slight increase in room revenue which was up by one per cent.

Overall increases in revenue were tempered by decreases in average room rates and RevPar. They fell 11 per cent to Dh489.06($133) and 5 per cent to Dh377.02 ($102.7) respectively, said Franklin.

The F&B revenue continues to make a positive contribution to bottom line performance providing 37 per cent of total revenue or year-to-date revenue of Dh1.27 billion ($345 million) – a climb of 9 per cent.

Average length of stay during October dropped slightly on the same month last year from 3.30 days to 3.19, said Franklin.

During October, the GCC continued to be a high performing region for Abu Dhabi with guest arrivals from the Gulf climbing 59 per cent.

Saudi Arabia accounted for the strongest regional growth of 92 per cent, which translates into 4,539 guests; followed by Kuwait from where guest arrivals rose 61 per cent to 1,105 and Qatar which produced 1,624 guests reflecting a 45 per cent increase on October 2010.

“Regional destination marketing, the staging of trade road shows within the Gulf and the hosting of inbound regional media appear to be delivering the results and awareness of Abu Dhabi’s upgraded destination offering in terms of both hotel, resort and attractions infrastructure as well as events,” said Franklin.

Within Europe, the UK and Germany continued their upward performance with some 13,065 Britons staying in Abu Dhabi hotels during last month – a rise of 13 per cent on October 2010 and some 6,670 German guests staying – which is up 38 per cent on the same comparative period.

India weighed in as the destination’s second largest overseas market with some 10,196 hotel guests staying – an increase of 37 per cent on October 2010.

“We are also anticipating increased business over the coming months emerging also from our recently-launched Golf In Abu Dhabi initiative which has already created  significant interest from international golf tour operators,” added Franklin.-TradeArabia News Service