Ginral Travel & Tourism

The "PWC" Report of the Second expectations about the hotel industry in the Middle East that the
growth indicators for the hotel industry in the region is still strong, with outstanding performance in the average daily rate and occupancy levels, while external factors represent new challenges.
According to the report, the decline is expected to result in oil prices and the euro fell to a decline in the number of tourists, especially those from Russia.
Commenting on this, in charge of the hospitality and entertainment sectors in "PWC" the Middle East, Philip Shepherd, partner commander said: "This is the situation for some time may need to change, so the increased supply may pose a problem, especially because of the high proportion of luxury hotels in the market." .
And dealing with the second edition of "PWC" a report on the hotel sector outlook entitled "Growth service" possibilities and the main problems facing the hospitality industry in the cities covered by the report, the Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Doha, Jeddah, Muscat and Riyadh. Six cities all saw an increase in the revenues available to the room during the year 2014, with double the growth in Doha and nearly so in Jeddah.
And achieved Abu Dhabi and Muscat, according to the report, the growth rate of almost 6%, while Dubai has seen a slight growth in revenue available for the room with the decline in occupancy rates.
On the other hand, occupancy rates in Riyadh rose by 6% with the decline in the average daily price, and thus increased revenues available to the room by only 1.1%.
The executive director of the hospitality and entertainment to the section "PWC" the Middle East, Allison Grinnell "The 50 million people visit the region during 2014, and easily surpassed the Middle East, the majority of other regions in the average room rate and occupancy rates."
The expectations of "PWC" for the years 2015 and 2016, they paint a different picture; where you see "PWC" The growth will represent the mainstream of the region during the year 2016 after the uneven performance during 2015. The Jeddah and Abu Dhabi at the forefront of candidates for the growth of cities during the year 2015 , where it is expected to grow revenue available for the room Pencpti 7.3% and 6.7%, respectively, are also expected to Doha is growing by 6.5%. On the other hand, it is expected to witness Muscat, Dubai and Riyadh decline in revenues available to the room.
"PwC" and expects to achieve positive growth in all six cities. It is expected that Dubai and Muscat check good growth in the average occupancy rate and room rate, thanks to spending on infrastructure and medium increase in supply and the high numbers of tourists as a result of government promotional programs.
Doha is expected to return to positive growth in the average room rate during the years 2015 and 2016, but the city's ability to manage new supply will represent the most prominent factor in achieving these expectations.
The sudden and significant decline in oil prices to reduce the number of tourists coming from certain areas, particularly those with high-spending visitors such as Russian citizens, who are spending dropped by about 50%. He Philip Sheppard "In addition to the decline in the number of Russian visitors during the fourth quarter, spending saw a big drop resulting in a negative impact on the room available revenues, especially in the sector of luxury hotels before who have already traveled."
Another challenge is the low value of the euro against the US dollar by 25%, resulting in a decline in the number of visitors from the euro zone. As the Middle East's economy depends on the dollar, the region turned to a destination expensive for those coming from the euro zone, which led to the decline in the number of tourists from that region in addition to the tourists went to Europe and Gulf countries for tourism shopping rather than the Middle East.
The majority of tourist bodies still in the region expect the number of visitors rising by a large margin, is expected to come to the region new tourists from China, India and other countries in Asia. The number of the Muslim population in China's growth will also lead to high numbers of Chinese coming to the region, especially Mecca and Medina.
Commenting on this, Philip Sheppard said: "The challenge will be to operators of tourist services in understanding and meeting the needs of those new tourists, which are different from the needs of European tourists or the Russians."
He Shepard: "The Middle East needs to provide more recreational activities other than utilities beaches available within the hotel. Currently planning and implementation of a number of projects such as" Gardens & Resorts Dubai "and" angry recreational bird park "and the Louvre and Zayed National Museum and the Guggenheim in Abu Dhabi" is going on.
At the level of the region, it is a high occupancy rates long-term trend. But with the increase in supply in the Middle East, the "PwC" warns of the existence of a question mark over the sustainability of this in the future. With more than 54,000 rooms under construction and another 72,000 rooms to be established in the region, it is likely that the show begins to exceed demand, which will impose great pressure on occupancy rates and average room rate.
Says Alison Grinnell: "It's interesting that the offer in the region exceeded demand during the peak month in February 2015, and for the first time since 2009. We expect it to be higher than the demand in the summer months offer, but this trend is becoming worrisome at peak times."
The hotel sector is inherently unable to respond quickly to fluctuations in demand, especially with a delay of between two and three years represent the period of the establishment of a new hotel. For this reason, BW see CNN hotel operators have to wait to assess the levels of demand during the year 2015 before committing to the launch of new projects, especially with the poor performance during the last quarter of 2014, representing the city of Doha only exception of this case, as the preparations for hosting the Cup Championship the football world are driving future projects at the moment.
The oversupply of luxury hotels in the market and change the nature of the tourists coming to the region calls for a re-evaluation categories available hotels for tourists.
The high number of luxury hotels and classified as five-star and one of several manifestations of an imbalance in the hotel sector in the Middle East. It owns the majority of mature markets distribution "hierarchy" or more proportional to hotels; where most hotels fall within the economic sector hotels and falls a few of them in the luxury category.
But this pattern is different in the Middle East, where large numbers of luxury rooms and especially in Dubai are located. At the present time, it is being built about 10,000 rooms in Dubai, including the 1,000 room only in the medium or economic sector.