Hospitality markets across the Middle East and North Africa (Mena) experienced a softer performance in October when compared to the same month in 2016.

This is according to the EY Middle East Hotel Benchmark Survey Report, which found that the majority of markets experienced a drop in revenue per available room (RevPAR — an industry benchmark for performance) due to an increase in supply in some of the markets like Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

Hospitality markets in Cairo witnessed the highest RevPAR and average daily rate (ADR) growth in the region (up 127.6 per cent and 87.8 per cent respectively) whilst Beirut recorded the biggest increase in occupancy rates in the region at 13.5 per cent.

According to EY’s research, Beirut's hospitality market also witnessed an increase in RevPAR of 34.8 per cent when compared to the same period last year. This increase was due to the ADR increasing from $137 in October 2016 to $149 in October 2017, coupled with an increased occupancy levels.

Dubai's hospitality market witnessed a slight decrease in occupancy by 2.4 percentage points in October 2017 when compared to the same period last year. It also witnessed a slight dip in ADR by 6 per cent, which caused a drop in RevPAR by 8.7 per cent from $236 in October 2016 to $215 in October 2017. The increased number of hotels in Dubai has made for a competitive market space, leading to hotels looking to maintain occupancy levels by lowering their ADRs.

Saudi Arabia witnessed an increase in occupancy in cities such as Makkah, Riyadh and Madinah when compared to the previous year. Occupancy increased by 13.9 per cent in Makkah, 5.9 per cent in Riyadh, 1.8 per cent in Madinah, but faced a slight decrease in Jeddah by 2.6 per cent. However, the ADR increased in Jeddah by 7.6 per cent and had a slight dip in Makkah by 6.9 per cent, Riyadh by 9.4 per cent and Madinah by 16.1 per cent. In regards to RevPAR, Jeddah experienced an increase of 2.7 per cent, Makkah of 33.2 per cent, while Riyadh decreased by 0.6 per cent and Madinah by 12.6 per cent.

Doha’s hospitality market witnessed the lowest performance across all key performance indicators in the Middle East in October 2017, when compared to the same period last year. The internationally branded four and five star hotels witnessed a drop in occupancy by 11.1 per cent points in October 2017 when compared to October 2016. They also saw a slight dip in ADR from $197 in October 2016 to $167 in October 2017, causing the RevPAR to decline by 28.8 per cent from $135 in October 2016 to $96 in October 2017.

Commenting on the October 2017 Mena Hotel Benchmark Survey Report, Yousef Wahbah, MENA Real Estate, Hospitality and Construction Sector Leader at EY said: The Mena hospitality market is expected to continue the trend of a softer performance but will look to see improvements in a few cities over the next few months due to annual exhibitions, events, and festivals.” - TradeArabia News Service