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United Arab Emirates Tourism Report Q2 2011
Business Monitor International, April 2011, Pages: 72
Business Monitor International's United Arab Emirates Tourism Report provides industry professionals and strategists, corporate analysts, tourism associations, government departments and regulatory bodies with independent forecasts and competitive intelligence on United Arab Emirates's tourism industry.
Note: Data and forecasts for individual emirates may not add up to UAE total as a result of data being taken at different times, and with differing methodology.
Tourism Overview
As expected, recent data show that there was a recovery in foreign visitor arrivals to the UAE in 2010. In Dubai, figures record a favourable rebound from the previous year’s downturn, with the total number of hotel and hotel apartment guests (including UAE nationals) up more than 10% year-on-year (y-o-y), to nearly 8.7mn. This includes 390,255 cruise tourists, rising almost 50% y-o-y. Data for Abu Dhabi show solid annual growth in tourist numbers of 18%, to 1.81mn visitors, which was well above the official target. In Sharjah, meanwhile, there was a relatively strong rebound in tourists staying in the emirate’s hotels and apartments in 2010, with annual growth at 7.5%, to about 1.56mn arrivals.
Hospitality
There was an improved performance in Dubai in 2010, with guest nights across all types of properties up a strong 16.5% y-o-y to nearly 26.6mn nights (this represents an average three night stay per guest). Hotel occupancy rates though remained unchanged compared with 2009, at 70% (partly due to an increase in the number of hotel rooms). Hotel revenues registered 6% annual growth to some AED13.3bn (with hotel rates coming under pressure).
After a favourable performance in Abu Dhabi’s hospitality sector in 2010 (although data are incomplete), latest figures for January 2011 show guest nights increased a robust 22%, compared with the same month a year earlier (guest numbers rose 5% y-o-y), with occupancy levels up nine percentage points to 66%. Strong growth was recorded in arrivals from Germany, the UK, Italy and Saudi Arabia. The total number of occupied room nights in Sharjah’s hotels and hotel apartments increased to 1,537,765 in 2010. This represented an annual increase of 5.2%, which was a reasonable recovery from negative growth in 2009. The overall occupancy rate also picked up to 73%, compared with 69% in the year before.
Forecast Scenario
In line with relatively strong new data, BMI retains its annual growth estimate for foreign arrivals to the UAE in 2010 at about 7%. Growth in arrivals is forecast to remain favourable in both 2011 and 2012. The outlook is based on stable economic growth in the two major source regions, the eurozone and the Middle East.
For the eurozone, the revised growth predictions stand at 1.8% in both 2011 and 2012. Concerning the UK, the key source market for inbound tourists to Dubai in 2009 and 2010, BMI forecast economic growth of 2.0% and 2.6% in 2011 and 2012 respectively. A concern for the tourism sector is that while the UAE is one of the few states that may avoid large-scale demonstrations similar to those seen elsewhere in the region, this report stresses that the outlook on the northern emirates is slightly less sanguine. Furthermore, broader regional political unrest may also deter foreign tourism.
Airlines
From August, the flag carrier of Abu Dhabi, Etihad Airways, will double its flight frequency between Abu Dhabi and Manchester, from seven to 14 flights each week. In November 2011, the carrier will also commence operations to Malé, the capital of the Republic of Maldives, subject to government approval. In the financial year ending December 2010, Sharjah-based Air Arabia recorded net profit of some AED309.6mn (US$84.4mn), a sharp annual decline of about 32%. Total turnover was AED2.08bn (US$567mn), an increase of 5.5% on 2009. The airline served 4.45mn passengers, compared with 4.06mn in 2009, which is an increase of nearly 10% y-o-y.
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