MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA The combined Middle East and Africa region reports mixed performance results during April, posting big gains in occupancy and ADR but staying mostly flat in terms of revenue.
The region ended April with a 9.7% occupancy decrease to 59%, while ADR rose 10.8% to US$176.82, according to STR Global data. However, RevPAR ended the month virtually flat, up 0.1% to US$104.25.
“With the ‘Arab Spring’ and its consequences still ongoing across parts of Northern Africa and the Middle East, Northern Africa reported a 45% RevPAR drop, mainly driven by occupancy declines as demand stayed away,” says Elizabeth Randall, managing director of STR Global. “The Middle East’s overall performance increased in occupancy and average room rate, driven by improvements in the largest two hotel markets of the region—Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.”
Two markets ended the month with double-digit occupancy increases: Riyadh (17% to 73.8%) and Abu Dhabi (15.7% to 69.3%). Cairo dropped 52.1% in occupancy to 33%, reporting the largest decrease in that metric, followed by Johannesburg (22.1% to 46.3%) and Muscat (20.3% to 53.1%).
Johannesburg (up 21.6% to US$118.06) and Cape Town (up 15.7% to US$153.09) reported the largest ADR increases. Three markets experienced double-digit ADR decreases: Abu Dhabi (20.3% to US$164.97), Beirut (16.8% to US$195.19) and Cairo (12.2% to US$114.93).
Four markets achieved RevPAR increases of more than 10%: Riyadh (27.5% to US$210.51), Cape Town (25.1% to US$84.94), Dubai (13.3% to US$216.67) and Jeddah (13% to US$150.70). Cairo fell 57.9% in RevPAR to US$37.93, reporting the largest decrease in that metric.