- Latest STR report reveals GCC has more than 170,000 hotel
rooms in its active development pipeline
- KSA & UAE lead the GCC with 39,070 & 32,272
rooms respectively under construction
- Arabian Travel Market expecting major
increase in GCC participation at 2023 event as GCC governments continue to
invest heavily in tourism
According
to new research commissioned by Arabian Travel Market (ATM),
and conducted at the end of September 2022 by hotel market intelligence and global benchmarking company STR, the GCC
region now has over 170,000 hotel rooms under active development (planning,
final planning & under construction).
This is equivalent to 40% of the
GCC’s existing hotel room inventory, a figure almost four times greater than
the rest of the world which currently lags behind at an average of 11% under active
development compared with existing supply.
Danielle Curtis, Exhibition Director, Arabian
Travel Market, said: “Between EXPO 2020, the 2022 FIFA World Cup, and Saudi
Arabia’s ambitious Vision2030 strategy, the GCC’s hospitality sector development
pipeline remains robust in contrast to global hotel development, which is slowing,
due to weak economic growth forecasts.
“While
the hospitality sector’s growth does highlight the region’s increasing
popularity on the global stage, it is also indicative of regional government
strategy, to diversify GDP growth away from hydrocarbons into tourism, that
will help to drive demand still further, over the coming years.
The STR
report estimates 135,560 existing rooms in Saudi Arabia with an active pipeline
of 82,639 rooms, with total room inventory projected for 2030, at over 218,000
rooms. Similarly
for the UAE, STR currently tracks more than 202,000 existing rooms with an
active pipeline of 48,910 rooms, a combined total of almost 251,000 rooms by 2030.
“Interestingly, Ras Al
Khaimah, is second only to Dubai, with 5.076 rooms in its pipeline, almost the
same amount as Sharjah, Abu Dhabi and Fujairah combined,” said Curtis.
The UAE’s
historic occupancy performance provides a blueprint of what the region can
expect as new rooms enter the market. Rooms supply increased by more than 70,000
rooms between 2010 and 2019, a staggering 68% increase in supply or about 6%
average annual growth.
“With such levels of
investment and development, we are expecting a marked increase in the number of
GCC participants at ATM 2023, including inbound tour operators and travel
agents from across the globe, as the region continues to attract growing numbers
of tourists, for whom environmentally friendly and sustainable development will
be critical,” added Curtis.
ATM
which is the leading Middle East travel and tourism event for international
inbound and outbound tourism professionals, takes place at the Dubai World
Trade Centre on 1-4 May, under the official theme of ‘Working Towards Net
Zero’.
RX
(Reed Exhibitions), the organiser of ATM, will celebrate its
30th annual event by unveiling a dedicated sustainability pledge, not only
to make the ATM 2023 event more sustainable but to announce 30 long-term goals
as ATM works towards net zero in line with the RX Global pledge.
ATM 2023, which aims to attract
over 26,000 visitors and 34,000 participants, will offer global travel trade
professionals a vision of how the travel and tourism industry will look in the coming
years by sharing new and insightful commentary from experts from around the
world, creating significant business opportunities over the course of the four-day
event.
Each year, ATM highlights specific aspects
of travel that will be pivotal in determining the direction the industry will
take moving forward. The show will explore how innovative sustainable travel
trends will evolve and identify strategies for growth within specific key vertical
sectors.
The ATM 2023 conference
programme is being specifically developed to address sustainability issues across
the travel and tourism industry, with commentary from leadership figures representing
a variety of sectors such as Destinations, Travel Technology, Airlines, Cruise,
Hospitality, Car Rental and Hotels.
The strategic partners for ATM 2023 include
Dubai Tourism as the Destination Partner, Emirates as the official Airline
Partner, IHG Hotels & Resorts
as the official Hotel Partner and Al Rais Travel as the official DMC Partner.
Tags: STR, ATM 2023, hotel room, travel and tourism industry, GCC
