Middle East Hotel Business Guest Survey 2008 released

This in-depth annual survey focuses on the hotel staying market and it is one of the most comprehensive of its kind.

In the current year the overall respondent group includes 933 Middle East business stayers in nine countries including; Bahrain, Kuwait, UAE, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Egypt, Lebanon and Jordan.

• The boom cycle continues in the Middle East

Confounding the trends evident in other global regions, the Middle East continues to be a growth region. Occupancy for the year to date to July 2008 is +3.5% on 2007 and ADR for the same period is fully 20.7% ahead, reports STR Global.

•According to the WTO the Middle East remains the world's fastest growing tourism region in terms of arrivals. The ambitions of the region's airlines, led by Emirates, but also Qatar Airways and Etihad are key drivers of this growth. Flying the A380 is not simply totemic

• Hotel brand results

Sheraton is the leading choice hotel brand and recaptures the title of Number 1 hotel brand among business travelers, ahead of Hilton (last year's leader). Hyatt is the most improved hotel brand following weaker results in the previous year.

•Four Seasons has also improved strongly and is the most improved deluxe brand.

• The major role of print and agents is sustained another year

The Middle East remains behind Europe and Asia Pacific in usage of the internet as a source of information, with more business travellers continuing to rely on printed guides.

•The cultural importance of relationships is also apparent and is reflected in the significant role of personal recommendation and agents as information sources.

• The use of agents to make the actual booking increases for a third year in a row, just to emphasise the continued importance that they hold in this region

• The use of the internet to review availability and make reservations at hotels is well behind all other world regions

Usage of the internet as a hotel booking tool in the Middle East region is still making only fitful progress

•The 2008 figures for looking and booking any hotel online drop back to 2006 levels, suggesting that the rise a year ago was not a change of the online engagement rules in the region. The long term trend does remain upwards, but this is a slow-adopting region

•In 2006 14% of respondents claimed to have used a wireless hotspot in a hotel - in 2007 this leaped to 28% yet has held steady in 2008. As opposed to Europe more business travelers prefer using the service in the lobby than in the bedroom.

•By a large margin Yahoo! Travel remains the number one travel intermediary site with 21% of all business travellers visiting it and just over 4% booking a hotel room through the site. Of the other intermediary sites MyTravel has made progress this year to challenge Hotels.com for the number two spot

• Loyalty programmes yet to become a mainstream marketing tool in the Middle East

Claimed active membership of programs in 2008 is only two thirds of the level recorded four years ago and even basic awareness of any of the named programs has dropped back.

•The increased reliance on travel agents reported this year may be one factor in this apparent decline of interest in these programs

The BDRC Hotel Guest Surveys were first launched in 1982 in Britain and are now conducted annually amongst more than 12,000 hotel business guests in the bespoke regions. The surveys focus on hotel brand awareness, usage, preference, and image perception. They also examine the hotel selection and reservation process, hotel & travel internet websites and other marketing issues.

1. BDRC (Business Development Research Consultants Ltd) is one of the leading independent marketing research agencies, with a dedicated Hotel and Hospitality Industry Research Team, the only one in Europe.

2. No.1 hotel brand determined by composite measure based on unaided and prompted awareness, usage, leading choice, preference amongst own users in each country and region measured and recommendation: definitely or probably would recommend amongst own users.

3. The BDRC Hotel Guest Surveys are conducted in almost 40 markets: Britain, Ireland, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Netherlands, Belgium, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Oman, Bahrain, Lebanon, Qatar, South Africa, Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Chile, China, India, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Australia, United States, Canada, Russia, Poland and Turkey.