A total of 153,298 rooms in 546 hotel projects were registered under contract in the Middle East, a slight increase of 1.1 per cent compared with March 2016.

According to the STR March 2017 Pipeline Report, the Middle East also reported 79,960 rooms in 258 hotels in construction for the month - a 0.6 per cent decrease in year-over-year comparisons.  

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

The STR report also highlighted the development in Africa, which reported 59,200 rooms in 319 projects under contract in March, a 3.9 per cent decrease in rooms under contract compared with March 2016. The continent also recorded 28,768 rooms in 157 hotels under construction for the month, which is a 6.1 per cent decrease in year-over-year comparisons.  

The majority of the projects recorded in both the Middle East and Africa were under the Upper Upscale category, with 23,289 (Middle East) and 12,139 (Africa) under constrction. A total of 43,619 (Middle East) and 22,479 (Africa) projects were reported to be under contract in the Upper Upscale category as well.

STR provides clients from multiple market sectors with premium, global data benchmarking, analytics and marketplace insights. - TradeArabia News Service