RIYADH: Gulf Cooperation Council countries have over 170,000 hotel rooms under active development, equivalent to 40 percent of the region’s existing inventory, according to research by hotel market intelligence company STR.
The development figure is almost four times greater than the rest of the world, which currently lags at an average of 11 percent more being created compared with existing supply.
Danielle Curtis, exhibition director of Arabian Travel Market, the firm that commissioned the research, said: “Between Expo 2020, the 2022 FIFA World Cup, and Saudi Arabia’s ambitious Vision 2030 strategy, the GCC’s hospitality sector development pipeline remains robust in contrast to global hotel development, which is slowing, due to weak economic growth forecasts.
“While the hospitality sector’s growth does highlight the region’s increasing popularity on the global stage, it is also indicative of regional government strategy to diversify gross domestic product growth away from hydrocarbons into tourism, which will help to drive demand still further, over the coming years.”
The STR report estimates there are 135,560 existing rooms in Saudi Arabia with an active pipeline of 82,639 rooms, making a total room inventory projected for 2030 at over 218,000. Similarly, for the UAE, there are more than 202,000 existing rooms with an active pipeline of 48,910 rooms, leading to a combined total of almost 251,000 rooms by 2030.
The UAE’s historic occupancy performance defines what the region can expect as new rooms enter the market. Rooms supply increased by more than 70,000 rooms between 2010 and 2019, a staggering 68 percent increase or about 6 percent average annual growth.
“With such levels of investment and development, we are expecting a marked increase in the number of GCC participants at ATM 2023, including inbound tour operators and travel agents from across the globe, as the region continues to attract growing numbers of tourists, for whom environmentally friendly and sustainable development will be critical,” added Curtis.
ATM, the leading Middle East travel and tourism event for international inbound and outbound tourism professionals, takes place at the Dubai World Trade Centre on May 1-4 2023 under the official theme of ‘Working Toward Net-Zero.’
