Dubai hotels revenues touch Dhs8.7bn mark in January-September 2007

Dubai had a strong presence at the world's biggest travel and tourism trade show in London for the 18th successive year with about 100 co-participants representing hotels, tour operators, golf clubs and other public and private sector organisations.

The DTCM Director General, Mr. Khalid A bin Sulayem, said the impressive performance of the emirate's booming tourism hospitality industry speak volumes about the continued success of Dubai as the world's leading business and leisure destination for people from across the world.

Giving details about the stellar performance of the impressive portfolio of hotels and hotel apartments during January and September 2007 compared with the corresponding period last year, Mr. bin Sulayem said more than 5.1 million guests stayed with Dubai hotels, recording an increase of seven per cent.

Similarly, the number of guestnights crossed the 15 million mark, posting an increase of 17.6 per cent.

The number of operating hotel establishments was 441, an increase of 7.1 per cent. The total revenues of hotel establishments stood at AED8.7 billion, a solid growth of 20.3 per cent.

The number of available hotel rooms increased by 5.4 per cent to 32,244. The average hotel rooms occupied rose by 9.7 per cent, while the average room occupancy was 86.9 per cent, an increase of 4.1 per cent.

The total hotel apartment flats available were 10113, an increase of 16.8 per cent, while the flat occupancy jumped up by 2.4 per cent to touch 83.4 per cent.

Mr. bin Sulayem said: "The excellent performance is a reflection of our marketing and promotional initiatives, especially in the overseas markets, to position Dubai as the world's leading tourism hub. It is also the fruit of an inspirational public-private sector partnership and government's unwavering determination to be a model destination."

Tourism Expert Mr. Mohammed Al Geziry said the enthusiastic response that Dubai has evoked in the WTM-2007 fair clearly suggest that Dubai will remain a sought-after year-round business and leisure destination with substantial increases expected in visitors. Dubai has already announced its ambition of attracting 15 million visitors by the year 2010, almost doubling the numbers from the present 6.5 million a year.

He said the new infrastructure projects and attractions taking shape in the emirate will help Dubai generate more tourism business and attract more visitors from almost every part of the world in the coming years.