Middle East Hotel Development Picks Up the Pace
Skift Take
Early Check-In
Editor’s Note: Skift Senior Hospitality Editor Sean O’Neill brings readers exclusive reporting and insights into hotel deals and development, and how those trends are making an impact across the travel industry.Hotel brands typically point to the U.S., China, and Europe as their main three geographic benchmarks for recovery from the pandemic. But the Middle East is the real winner.
Many of the publicly traded hotel companies to report fourth quarter and full-year 2021 earnings over the last few weeks noted the Middle East was one of their strongest-performing regions.
Marriott’s revenue per available room — the industry’s key performance metric — in the Middle East was 8 percent above 2019 levels in the fourth quarter. It was 7 percent above 2019 levels for Hilton. Accor, which lumps the Middle East into a portfolio with India, Africa, and Turkey, reported a 5 percent increase over 2019 levels across the area.
Average occupancy rates in the Middle East topped 65 percent in the fourth quarter, the highest of any region in Marriott’s system.
“With relatively high vaccination rates and low travel restrictions during the quarter, the Middle East has become a safe, easy place to visit,” Marriott CEO Anthony Capuano said on an investor call last month. “Leisure demand was remarkably strong, benefiting from a significant increase in international visitors. Room nights from international guests rose nearly 60 percent from the third to the fourth quarter.”
Many of the companies reporting strong numbers in the Middle East noted this was led by the United Arab Emirates, where Expo 2020 began its delayed start in October as a result of the pandemic. But co
