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Hotel Development in GCC countries

Even though covid-19 caused significant loss to the global hospitality industry in the last 2 years, hotel development is gaining momentum in prime tourist locations in the Middle East, such as the UAE, Qatar, Oman, and Saudi Arabia.

You should believe new research released by the Arabian travel market (conducted by Hotel market Intelligence and global benchmarking company STR in 2021). It says Mecca and Doha are two essential cities expanding hotel room inventory by 76%.  Other cities are also doing the same-Riyadh(66%), Medina( 60%),  and Muscat( 59%). In Dubai, the room's growth rate is 26 %, more than double the global average. An expert said that the global average of total development is just 12%, many GCC destinations are growing at six times those rates. As Middle East countries are opening the market, giving travel relaxations, a change is highly expected. As per the report, approximately 2.5 million hotel rooms are under contract globally, out of which 80,000 rooms are in Saudi Arabia alone.

You need to keep in mind that Expo 2020 in Dubai is about to close on March 31, 2022. This mega event contributed to the development of 50,000 hotel rooms. Moreover, FIFA World Cup 2022  is just a few days away; Doha is likely to deliver 23000 hotel rooms pre and post-World Cup 2022, which will add to the country's rapidly flourishing hotel property portfolio.

Curtis states that although the actual number of hotel rooms might not look impressive compared to the global hotel room pipelines, remarkable growth in the hotel room indicated that the government is trying to diversify the economy away from hydrocarbon and petroleum products. It also boosts their confidence in developing tourism throughout the Middle East. Don’t be surprised if Middle East countries become prominent tourist attractions in the world in a few years.