Abu Dhabi hotel room rates decline 14.2% in June

Hotel room rates in Abu Dhabi during June 2014 decreased by 14.2 per cent compared with May 2014, figures recently released by the Statistics Centre - Abu Dhabi (SCAD) have revealed.
The statistics are part of SCAD's report and analysis of the hotel establishments price index during June 2014 compared with May 2014, and the same period in 2013. The decrease in hotel room rates led to the hotel establishments price index decreasing by 11.5 per cent during June 2014 compared with May 2014. There was also a decrease in hotel apartments room rates by 3.6 per cent.
The emirate of Abu Dhabi is one of the most attractive tourist regions in the Middle East, because of the development of the construction and services in the tourism sector. Hotels are considered as the fundamental base of the tourism sector. In general, the services' prices provided by hotels are considered as one of the most important factors in attracting tourism.
The hotel price index (HPI) decreased during the month of June 2014 from 90.6 in May 2014 to 80.1 in June 2014. In addition, the HPI decreased by 3.8 per cent in June 2014 compared with June 2013, while HPI for the first five months in 2014 decreased by 5.7 per cent compared with the same period in 2013.
The report also revealed that the decreases in hotel room rates by 14.2 per cent are a result of the decreases in the prices for ‘five-stars', ‘four-stars', ‘three-stars', ‘two-stars' and ‘one-star' hotels by 17.5 per cent, 8.1 per cent, 12.4 per cent, 2.5 per cent and 16.1 per cent respectively during June 2014 compared with May 2014. The decreases in prices for ‘Deluxe', ‘Standard' and ‘Superior' hotel apartments by 2.5 per cent, 5.7 per cent and 4.1 per cent respectively led to a decrease in overall hotel apartments room rates by 3.6 per cent.
In addition, figures released by the Abu Dhabi Tourism and Culture Authority show that from January to the end of June this year, over 1,700,135 guests checked into the emirate's accommodation – a 28 per cent up-lift on the first half of 2013. The arrivals delivered 5,147,392 guest nights, which was up 22 per cent on the comparative period last year with occupancy climbing eight per cent year-on-year.
The bullish half year performance was aided by a jump in year-on-year up-lift for June when guest arrivals rose 14 per cent to 264,203; guest nights climbed 18 per cent to 771,997; the average length-of-stay nudged up four per cent to 2.92 nights; and occupancy moved up eight per cent to 70 per cent. Hotel revenues rose 16 per cent to Dh413 million (US$112.4 million).Source: Khaleej Time