More than 276,900 guests checked into Abu Dhabi’s 149 hotels and hotel apartments in January, reflecting an increase of 36 per cent over the same month in 2013, according to figures released by Abu Dhabi Tourism & Culture Authority (TCA Abu Dhabi).

In all the arrivals delivered 855,651 guest nights which is an increase of 26 per cent on the same month-by-month comparison.

Occupancy for the month rose to 77 per cent - which was up 10 per cent on January last year and average room rate moved slightly upwards, by 2 per cent to Dh462 ($126).

Total hotel revenues climbed 22 per cent to Dh522 million ($142.1 million) with food & beverage recording 21 per cent growth to Dh194 million ($53 million).

“January reaped the benefits of the international holiday seasons and the hosting of numerous major events in the emirate including the World Future Energy Summit and the Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship,” said Jasem Al Darmaki, deputy director general, TCA Abu Dhabi.

“This is an excellent start to a year in which we have stretched our hotel guest target to 3.1year million following last year’s record breaking performance when we exceeded our hotel guest target and achieved our original 2014 goal of 2.8 million.

“We anticipate being able to maintain this upward momentum given the air capacity uplift to be delivered shortly through new Etihad Airways’ services between Jaipur and Abu Dhabi and from Perth in Australia and Los Angeles and Dallas in the US. These new services will complement greater planned frequency on Etihad’s services from Dublin and New York as well as airberlin’s doubling, next October, of its daily flights from the German capital to the UAE capital.”

India remained the emirate’s primary overseas hotel guest market with 16,221 Indians checking into Abu Dhabi’s accommodation – a jump of 29 per cent on January 2013. These arrivals delivered 65,937 guest nights, which climbed 15 per cent year-on-year with the average Indian staying just over four nights.

The UK maintained its second place overseas market ranking with 15,208 Britons checking into Abu Dhabi’s hotels – which was up 24 per cent on 2013. The UK arrivals delivered 64,150 guest nights, which was a lift of 12 per cent year-on-year with the average Briton staying over four nights.

The US surpassed Germany as the third largest overseas hotel guest market in January with 10,935 Americans staying in the emirates hotels which was a leap of 48 per cent on the same month last year. The Americans delivered 47,197 hotel guests, which was up 13 per cent on 2013 and stayed, on average, four and a half nights.

Germany slipped to fourth place in the overseas source market rankings with 10,773 Germans checking into Abu Dhabi’s accommodation, which was a 25 per cent year-on-year increase.  The German guests delivered 52,543 guest nights – a rise of 24 per cent - and stayed on average close to five nights.

Major market strides were made during January with arrivals from China – which rose 353 per cent. Some 9,751 Chinese checked into Abu Dhabi’s hotels during the month accounting for 14,632 room nights – which was a year-on-year increase of 147 per cent.

“January’s performance ranks China as our sixth largest overseas source market though its stellar performance could be due to large scale bookings to celebrate Chinese New Year,” said Al Darmaki. “For the first time Abu Dhabi staged a public festival at Al Maryah Island to celebrate Chinese New Year and we hope to expand this into an annual event.”

Kuwait too delivered major strides forward for Abu Dhabi during January. In total 2,215 Kuwaitis checked into the emirates hotels – a 76 per cent year-on-year increase. The Kuwaitis delivered 5,441 guest nights which was a stellar 99 per cent uplift month-on-month with Kuwaitis staying, on average, 2.46 nights. – TradeArabia News Service