Dubai's hotels and hotel apartments, which saw a 13 per cent rise in the number of guests last year over 1999, are expected to lure more visitors this year, a new report said.

The report also quoted the Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DTCM) as saying the number of hotels in Dubai increased from 265 last year to 287 in August this year.

According to the report, the number of hotel rooms and hotel apartment rooms also increased to 22,286 and 6,032 respectively.

The number of guests in 265 hotels and 128 hotel apartments in the city last year was 3,420,209 as against to 3,026,734 in 254 hotels and 124 hotel apartments in 1999. The combined growth rate was 13 per cent, the report said.

The number of guest-nights last year was 8,799,021 as against 7,514,051 the previous year.

The growth in guest-nights was 17.10 per cent. The revenue generated from their stay in 1999 was Dh2.6 billion, the report said. Last year, it reached over Dh2.98 billion Ñ a growth of 14.22 per cent.

Hotels registered a much higher growth against hotel apartments, the report said. In 1999, about 2,480,821 visitors stayed in hotels. This increased by 14.3 per cent to 2,835,638 last year.

Hotel revenues, increased by 17.83 per cent to Dh2.63 billion last year from Dh2.23 billion in 1999. The hotel occupancy rate rose by 2.17 per cent from 59.04 per cent in 1999 to 61.21 per cent the following year.