Dubai hotels register 83% occupancy rate in first 3 months of 2023

Dubai’s hotels saw a surge in performance during the first quarter of 2023. Average occupancy for the sector during the January-March period stood at 83 per cent, making it one of the highest in the world, and almost on par with the 84 per cent occupancy recorded in Q1 2019 before the Covid-19 pandemic.

The achievement comes as Dubai registered a 26 per cent increase in room capacity since then. By the end of March 2023, the city's hotel sector had a total of 148,877 rooms in 814 hotel establishments. Continued domestic and international investment into the sector helped further boost hotel inventory, with the first quarter of 2023 seeing a 6 % increase in the total number of hotels and rooms compared to the same period in 2022.

These came as Dubai announced it welcomed more than 4.67 million international visitors in the first three months of 2023.

The hotel sector outperformed pre-pandemic levels across multiple metrics. During the first three months of the year, Dubai hotels collectively provided 10.98 million Occupied Room Nights, a YoY growth of 7 per cent and a 27 per cent increase compared to the pre-pandemic period of Q1 2019.

The average daily rate (ADR) of Dh607 during the first three months of the year surpassed that of 2019’s Dh498. The Revenue Per Available Room (RevPAR) of Dh504 in Q1 2023, surged by 21 per cent compared to the first three months of the pre-pandemic period of 2019 (Dh417). The average length of stay by guests increased to four nights compared to 3.5 nights.

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