Dubai tops the world in hotel occupancy levels; RevPAR

Announcing this during its strong participation in the five-day ITB-2012 in Berlin concluding tomorrow, the emirate's tourism regulatory body said Dubai hotel establishments' 86.2% occupancy level in the month of January 2012 has placed it on top on the list of 15 top performance destinations, up from 75.4% occupancy levels they posted last year.

This distinction has placed the emirate above Hong Kong, Sydney, London, Tokyo, Paris, Los Angeles, New York, Buenos Aires, Toronto, Madrid, Berlin, Beijing and Rome. For the same period, Dubai's stood at seventh position in 2010 and 2009 and fifth in 2008.

The number of Dubai hotel rooms increased to 74,613 in 2012 from 56,599 in 2008. The stellar performance of Dubai's tourism industry was released in a STR Global report.

As for the average room rate, Dubai stood second after Paris on the list of destinations covered in the report with $269.9, up from the fourth position it enjoyed in 2011 and 2010 with US$224 and $218, respectively.

Dubai was the top performer in the world in 2009 and 2008 in this category with rates of $235 and $300, respectively.

In terms of RevPAR (Revenue per available room) category, Dubai was placed on the first position with $232.7, up from the fifth position it enjoyed last year with $169. It was on the sixth position in 2010 with $154, third position in 2009 with $163 and first in 2008 with $237.

Meanwhile, DTCM's 528 square metre Dubai Stand at the world's biggest travel industry show continues to be a beehive of activity with government officials, diplomats, ministers and travel industry representatives holding discussions with the DTCM and other officials. The UAE ambassador to Germany, Mohammed Ahmed Al Mahmoud, Bahrain's ambassador to Germany, Ibrahim Mahmoud Ahmed Abdullah, and Chairman of Fujairah Tourism and Antiquities Department, Ahmed Al Shamsi, visited the Dubai Stand.

The visitors were briefed about the new hotel classification system and the Dubai Green Tourism Award programme by the DTCM Director of Licensing, Mr. Majid Al Marri.

For the full year of 2011, Dubai counts around 1,158,000 overnight stays of German guests, corresponding to a growth by 12.4% compared to the previous year.

Germany remains the key source market of Central Europe for Dubai. This also applies to the number of German cruise guests, whose share in the total of all cruise guests is at 32%. Hence, every third cruise passenger comes from Germany.