Hotels in major Middle East cities suffered more misery in August, suffering double-digit declines in occupancy and revenue year-on-year as the fasting month of Ramadan added to the travel downturn in the low summer season, the latest STR Global report shows.
The region's business and leisure hub Dubai was among four markets that experienced a decline of more than 30 percent in revenue per available room (Revpar), a key measure of hotel performance, in August compared with the same month last year.
Revpar in Dubai fell 33.6 percent to $100.46, the Saudi capital Riyadh saw a decline of 30.1 percent to $80.67, Cairo dropped 36.5 percent to $73.1, while Muscat was the worst performer, dropping 38.5 percent to $60.5.
"With Ramadan taking place Aug. 21-Sept. 19, the Middle East-Africa region dropped 21 percent in Revpar for August falling for the first time behind Europe and the Americas in terms of monthly Revpar declines," STR Global Managing Director Elizabeth Randall said in a statement.
The hospitality research firm believes it to be "a temporary position" for the region, saying the year-to-date decline is still less than other regions.
The global economic crisis has hit the travel industry hard, with people postponing discretionary travel in hard times and businesses cutting on travel to save costs.
The August drop for Middle East hotels follows declines in previous months, as summer months are particularly slow for hotels in the Gulf.
Muscat also suffered the largest occupancy decrease in August, falling 38.2 percent to 35.4 percent, while Riyadh dropped 31.5 percent to 38.8 percent.
Dubai's occupancy decline was 15.1 percent to 64.1 percent. The city was once the star performer in the hotel industry, but its occupancy levels are down about 15 percent so far this year and Revpar has declined 35 percent, more than the average for the region.
Beirut and Jeddah were the two cities to show an increase in Revpar in August. Jeddah improved 9.2 percent to $139.13 while Beirut was up 6.5 percent to $209.
Jeddah benefited from the increase Umrah traffic during Ramadan as the city serves as the gateway to pilgrims heading for the holy cities of Mecca and Medina.
But this year Umrah traffic was affected due to the global swine flu pandemic.
Hotel occupancies in the city fell 1.3 percent to 75.4 percent. According to media reports, some hotels in Mecca were only half full.
