The hospitality industry in Dubai continued its strong growth levels with the emirate topping the hotel occupancy levels and average revenue per room (RevPAR) globally for January, said top tourism officials citing the STR Global report.

This distinction has placed the emirate above Hong Kong, Sydney, London, Tokyo, Paris, Los Angeles, New York, Buenos Aires, Toronto, Madrid, Berlin, Beijing and Rome, said officials of The Dubai Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DTCM) at the ongoing ITB-2012 tourism expo in Berlin.

The  tourism regulatory body said Dubai hotel establishments’ 86.2 per cent occupancy level in January had placed it on top on the list of 15 best performance destinations, up from 75.4 per cent occupancy levels they posted last year.

For the same period, Dubai’s stood at seventh position in 2010 and 2009 and fifth in 2008. The number of Dubai hotel rooms increased to 74,613 in 2012 from 56,599 in 2008. The stellar performance of Dubai’s tourism industry was released in a STR Global report. 

With regard to the average room rate, Dubai stood second after Paris on the list of destinations covered in the report with $269.9, up from the fourth position it enjoyed in 2011 and 2010 with $224 and $218, respectively.

Dubai was the top performer in the world in 2009 and 2008 in this category with rates of $235 and $300, respectively.

In terms of RevPAR (Revenue per available room) category, Dubai was placed on the first position with $232.7, up from the fifth position it enjoyed last year with $169. It was on the sixth position in 2010 with $154, third position in 2009 with $163 and first in 2008 with $237.

Meanwhile, DTCM said its 528 sq m Dubai Stand at the world’s biggest travel industry show continues to be a beehive of activity with government officials, diplomats, ministers and travel industry representatives holding discussions with the DTCM and other officials.

The UAE ambassador to Germany, Mohammed Ahmed Al Mahmoud, Bahrain’s ambassador to Germany, Ibrahim Mahmoud Ahmed Abdullah, and chairman of Fujairah Tourism and Antiquities Department, Ahmed Al Shamsi, visited the Dubai Stand.

The visitors were briefed about the new hotel classification system and the Dubai Green Tourism Award programme by the DTCM Director of Licensing, Mr. Majid Al Marri.

For the full year of 2011, Dubai counts around 1,158,000 overnight stays of German guests, corresponding to a growth by 12.4 per cent compared to the previous year. Germany remains the key source market of Central Europe for Dubai, said the DTCM officials.
 
This also applies to the number of German cruise guests, whose share in the total of all cruise guests is at 32 per cent. Hence, every third cruise passenger comes from Germany, they added.-TradeArabia News Service