BULLETIN

HOTELIER MIDDLE EAST | May 2019 | Volume 18 Issue 05 5

Middle East hotel market to remain

“constrained” for 2019 in Dubai

Paramount hotels

to ‘roll out the red

carpet’ in the ME

Hotel analysts Tri Consulting has predicted “mixed results” for the Middle

East hospitality sector in its hotel market report for 2019

Paramount Hotels & Resorts to

open fi rst “Hollywood movie-

themed” property in Dubai

BULLETIN

Saudi in focus .......................... 06

Story in numbers ..................... 08

Egypt news ............................. 09

Bahrain news ......................... 10

Oman news ............................. 10

What’s the story ...................... 12

A ROUND-UP OF THE MIDDLE EAST HOTELS AND HOTELIERS MAKING HEADLINES THIS MONTH

Story

of the

month

Bulletin

T

he report revealed

regional performance

levels for 2018

experienced a

challenging year, which was

driven by supply progression

and minimal growth in demand.

Low oil prices, weaker

economic growth and currency

fluctuations were among

the reasons for lower tourist

spending in the Middle East,

which also resulted in a drop

in average room rates by 4.1%

to US$171.1bn. This also led to

RevPar falling 1.9% to $116.5bn.

In terms of market outlook,

NEW OPENING Located in Dubai’s

Business Bay, Paramount hotel

is set to open on 1 September

2019. The property will feature
      823 rooms, including suites from
      a variety of producers such as
      the Great Gatsby Suite and The
      Godfather Suite.
      Paramount Hotel’s vice president
      of operations, Alessandro Redaelli,
      said that Dubai “corresponds” to
      the glamour effort that the brand
      is portraying. He also added the
      the brand has extensive expansion
      plans across the Middle East.
      “It is the first of two projects that
      we have here in the United Arab
      Emirates. We have another project
      in Downtown in Damac, which is
      set to open in 2020,” said Redaelli.
      “Of course, we’re not limited to just
      the UAE; we have projects in other
      countries such as Bahrain and
      Saudi Arabia too.”

Dubai and Saudi Arabia are among the regions to slow down in hotel supply

Contents

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Tri Consulting flagged up Dubai

and the Kingdom of Saudi

Arabia as “noticeable markets”

that are expected to slowdown in

demand.

“As the global GDP growth

is forecast to remain flat and

the region is expected to see a

marginal uptake in 2019, we

expect the market conditions to

remain constrained and hotel

performance levels to remain

under pressure this year,” it said

in the report.

Other results show that

overnight tourism arrivals to the

region had experienced a 10%

hike in 2018 compared to 2017.

This led to a rise in occupancy

levels from 66.5% to 68.1%.

The corporate, BAR and

leisure markets were the key

sources of demand for the

region’s hotels. The report

also found that Online Travel

Agency’s (OTA’s) had witnessed

a surge in demand.

Earlier in 2019, STR had

reported that hotels in the

Middle East saw occupancy

increase by 3.3% to 72.2%. It

cited Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt,

behind the increase, as the city

tried to recapture its market.