The UAE hospitality industry still has some way to go to recover from the crippling effects of the coronavirus crisis, according to a leading industry expert, despite the country’s tourism sector recording the second highest hotel occupancy in the world for 2020.
Figures released by the Ministry of Economy on Saturday revealed the UAE recorded a 54.7 percent hotel occupancy rate in 2020 – beaten only by China – while the global rate dropped to 37 percent under the weight of the ongoing pandemic and hotels in the Middle East region recorded just 43 percent occupancy on average.
This is in parallel to the decline in tourist activity, which fell by 74 percent around the world and 76 percent in the region.
“This is a great performance considering that the UAE is also one of the only markets that is widely re-open to international travellers from around the globe. Few to no other countries have managed to open borders as soon, as widely and as successfully,” Bruno Trenchard, senior manager, hotels and hospitality, CBRE Middle East, told Arabian Business.
Hospitality businesses in the UAE welcomed 14.8 million guests in 2020, who spent 54.2 million nights in 1,089 tourism companies that provided approximately 180,000 rooms, according to official statistics issued by the World Tourism Organisation and the Emirates Tourism Council.
“This is especially remarkable when considering that the main source markets for the UAE – KSA, Oman, China for instance – had some of the strongest outbound travel restrictions,” said Trenchard.
The average stay was 3.7 nights per guest, with returns of AED318.5 per room. Domestic tourism contributed AED41 billion to the national economy last year – a figure that is expected to double over the next few years.
However, Trenchard warned: “The road for recovery is still not complete. The growth in occupancy rates is a very positive sign but hoteliers are still suffering from low ADRs. With the arrival of Ramadan and summer which are typically low-rate seasons, an immediate increase in ADRs seem unlikely.”
Although he added that the Expo 2020 Dubai, which is due to open its doors to the world in October, will add further impetus to the industry.
Bruno Trenchard, senior manager, hotels and hospitality, CBRE Middle East
Another driver in the recovery process has been the national vaccination roll-out, with around 9 million doses administered across the country.
While welcoming this incredible success story, Simon Allison, CEO of hotel owners’ alliance, HOFTEL, warned that the industry would not get back to pre-Covid levels unless there was a universal vaccination drive, which included children.
Currently, children under 16 are not eligible for the Covid-19 vaccine. Pfizer is the only shot authorised for 16-year-olds, but the company announced last month testing shows it is effective in kids as young as 12. The FDA still needs to give approval for that, which could take six months.
Simon Allison, CEO of hotel owners’ alliance, HOFTEL
Allison told Arabian Business: “In terms of this particular pandemic, the biggest issue that governments have not got to grips with at all, is the unvaccinated and particularly the unvaccinated elements of the family. So people are not really vaccinating children and even if they want to, most countries are at least a year away from getting there.
“So if you have special rules for vaccinated as opposed to unvaccinated you can’t bring in families because the parents will be vaccinated and the kids won’t be.
“I don’t really hear a lot of dialogue about that, but that’s got to be seriously important for the next winter season. I look at Thailand and they’re saying that they’ll cut quarantine to five days for people who are vaccinated and 10 days for people who aren’t. But what are you going to do with your kids, are you going to leave them in a hotel for five days. It doesn’t work.”
Follow us on
