Abu Dhabi reports highest January occupancy since 2008

STR's Middle East &Africa hotel data for January 2019 reported that Middle East hotels saw occupancy decrease 0.9% to 68.2% in January as ADR dropped 8.9% to US$154.18 and RevPAR declined 9.6% to $105.16.

Abu Dhabi, however, went against the overall results and showed positive growth in January 2019 when compared to the same period in 2018. Witnessing a good start to 2019, hotels in Abu Dhabi saw a 1.9% increase in occupancy to 78%, followed by a rise in ADR (5.4%) to AED 449.72 ($122.5) along with a 7.5% increase in RevPAR to AED 350.88 ($95.5).

The capital of the UAE witnessed a supply growth of 11.2%, but despite this, Abu Dhabi achieved its highest January occupancy since 2008. STR analysts have said this is due to a 13.4% spike in demand to the Asian Cup football championship.

Dubai, however, saw some decline in its performance - which STR analysts put down to a market with a significant amount of new inventory in the pipeline ahead of Expo 2020. As of January, Dubai showed 170 projects in construction accounting for 48,759 rooms. The emirate's occupancy dipped by 5% to 82% in January 2019, while both ADR and RevPAR declined (by 10.9% and 15.3% respectively) to AED 716.78 ($195) and AED 587.70 ($160), respectively.

At the same time, demand (room nights sold) grew for the fourth consecutive month, reported STR, and overall performance was solid during the first five days of the month thanks to New Year’s celebrations as well as the Arabplast international trade exhibition.