Dubai's hotel establishments welcomed 11,629,578 guests last year, registering a 5.6 per cent increase on 2013’s total.
Figures released by Dubai’s Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DTCM) show steady year-on-year growth and significant increases across key indicators including hotel establishment revenues and guest nights.
The figures for 2014 indicate that Dubai is continuing to grow at a sustainable level, while also growing its portfolio of hotels and hotel apartment establishments, thus taking another step closer to achieving its Tourism Vision for 2020, which aims to welcome 20 million visitors a year by 2020.
Dubai’s top ten hotel guest source markets last year remained almost entirely unchanged from 2013: Saudi Arabia was once again the top source market, followed by India, UK, USA, Iran, Oman, China, Kuwait, Russia and Germany.
Dubai’s hotels and hotel apartment establishments recorded an increase in guest nights last year, increasing by 7.4 per cent from 41.58 million in 2013 to 44.66 million in 2014. The average length of stay increased from 3.78 days to 3.84 days.
Revenues for hoteliers and hotel apartment operators saw significant growth, as room revenues increased by 12 per cent year-on-year and F&B and other revenues increased by 6.1 per cent year-on-year.
In addition to the increase in rooms demanded by the forecasted rise in visitor numbers, the Vision for 2020 targets also underlined the need to broaden and further diversify Dubai’s range of accommodation offering. In the last year, new additions include a number of properties across all star ratings including Sofitel Dubai Sheikh Zayed Road, Four Seasons Resort Dubai at Jumeirah Beach, DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel and Residences Dubai, Hyatt Place Dubai Al Rigga, Pullman Jumeirah Lakes Towers and the Sheraton Grand Dubai.
Gerald Lawless, president and group CEO of Jumeirah Group, said, “Jumeirah hotels in Dubai have had another successful year and achieved 80 per cent occupancy. United Kingdom, GCC and Germany continue to be the leading source markets.
“Despite the geopolitical turmoil in Russia and Ukraine, we still maintain a healthy share of business from those countries and work closely with our partners there.
“With 22 hotels in 11 destinations and a further 18 in the development pipeline, Jumeirah continues its ambitious international expansion. The construction of Madinat Jumeirah Phase IV is well underway with a view to opening in 2016. The first Venu hotel, part of Jumeirah’s new lifestyle brand, is under development as well and will debut in Dubai with the inauguration of Bluewaters Island, a Meeras project. We very much appreciate the ongoing support from DTCM, which enables us to achieve such excellent results.”
David Thomson, chief operating officer, JA Resorts & Hotels, informed that the hospitality group enjoyed another year of excellent occupancy levels, which averaged above 80 per cent across Dubai properties in both the hotel and deluxe hotel apartment sectors. Though guests from Russia were lesser in number, JA opened representative offices in both China and India and saw significant numbers as well from the more traditional markets of the UK and German speaking Europe. “Encouragingly we also saw substantial growth from Australia and the Scandinavian countries as we took maximum advantage to the continuous expansion of the Emirates network.”
