Hotels and hotel apartments throughout Abu Dhabi emirate have continued their hotel guest and guest nights momentum, after receiving 12 per cent more guests in May this year, compared to May last year. Some 192,374 guests stayed in the emirate’s accommodation in May this year, accounting for 542,567 guest nights – a rise of 7 per cent on May last year.
Total hotel revenue climbed 3 per cent on May 2011 to stand at Dh360 million ($98 million). Food and beverage accounted for Dh151.3 million ($41.2 million) – a month-on-month rise of 14 per cent - while room revenue over the same period decreased 4 per cent to Dh167.32million ($45.5 million).
Reflecting increased room supply throughout the emirate – the number of rooms available has risen 13 per cent since May 2011 - hotel occupancy in May reached 63 per cent, an 8 per cent slip on the comparative month last year. The average length of stay decreased 4 per cent on May 2011 to come in at 2.82 days.
“Average length of stay is a key performance indicator we are now actively addressing through our intensive Summer in Abu Dhabi campaign. By offering a range of discounted activities and family-orientated entertainment programmes, we are providing more incentives to guests to visit the emirate and stay for longer,” explained HE Mubarak Al Muhairi, director general, Abu Dhabi Tourism & Culture Authority (TCA Abu Dhabi), which has released the monthly figures.
“We are closely monitoring this programme’s performance to identify areas of key appeal and improvement so that we can continue - with widespread stakeholder support - to build on the destination’s overall value-for-money proposition.”
The May results leave Abu Dhabi well placed to achieve its 2012 hotel guest target of 2.3 million, with TCA Abu Dhabi anticipating gradual pick up from the US and Saudi Arabian markets over the coming months following its recent openings of dedicated offices in New York and Jeddah.
“In both countries we are now engaging with the outbound travel trade to produce significant packaging around stays of five nights and more,” explained Al Muhairi.
So far this year, Abu Dhabi’s accommodation providers have received 984,045 guests – a 14 per cent increase on the first five months of last year. Guest nights over the same period have risen 8 per cent to 2,834,886. Year-to-date occupancy stands at 66 per cent a dip of 7 per cent on last year - though revenue has risen 2 per cent to stand at Dh2 billion ($544.5 million).
Domestic tourism continued to perform well last month growing by 47 per cent on May 2011, while inbound GCC guests jumped 20 per cent. Guests from Asia rose 33 per cent and Europe turned in a 15 per cent growth.
The GCC’s guest performance increase was primarily driven by an influx of Qataris (35 per cent), followed by Kuwaitis (20 per cent) then Saudi Arabians (19 per cent). Asia’s guest performance was largely due to growth from China (137 per cent), the Philippines (71 per cent), and India (38 per cent), while growth from Europe was spearheaded by growth from Germany (45 per cent).