Hotel room occupancy in Qatar - No Growth

By Santhosh V. Perumal
Qatar’s hospitality industry appears to experience pressure as hotel room occupancy was flat and yield- per-room fell since average room rate was on the decline year-to-date (June 30) in dollar terms, according to Ernst and Young’s survey.
Doha’s hotel room occupancy remained flat at 69%, which was lower than that in Jeddah (71%), Makkah (78%), Abu Dhabi (78%), Al Ain (70%), Dubai – apartments (84%), Dubai – beach (84%), Dubai – city (81%) and Dubai – overall (82%), said the E&Y ‘Middle East Hotel Benchmark Survey’.
The other Gulf cities where hotel room occupancy was lower than that in Doha were Manama at 26% (against 68% in June 2010), Muscat’s at 67% (72%), Madina at 67% (66%) and Riyadh at 64% (60%); while Kuwait’s was flat at 57%.
The average room rate in Doha fell 7.8% to $269 and accordingly rooms yield sunk 8.7% to $187 YTD in June, whereas its neighbour Manama witnessed 63.3% plunge in rooms yield to $66 as average room rate and occupancy fell 5.9% and 42% respectively.
In the case of Saudi Arabia, Jeddah witnessed a 1.5% growth in average room rate to $212 whereas rooms yield fell 0.6% to $152 as there was a 2% dip in occupancy rate. 
With occupancy rate up 1% and average room rate rising 1.6% to $135, Madina’s rooms yield climbed 3.5% to $92.
In Makkah, occupancy rate rose 2% and average room rate by 6.1% to $192, leading to a 9.7% rise in rooms yield to $151 and in Riyadh, occupancy was up 4% but average room rate grew slower at 0.1% to $240, yet translating as 7.1% rise in rooms yield to $155.
In the UAE, Dubai (overall) witnessed a 6.7% rise in rooms yield to $192 as average room rate rose 2.5% to $232 on a 3% rise in occupancy whereas Abu Dhabi saw a 3.7 fall in rooms yield to $176 on an 8.8% decline in average room rate to $223 and a 4% fall in occupancy.
In the case of Al Ain, hotel rooms yield plunged 10.7% to $114 on a 7% fall in average room rate to $161 and occupancy rate fell 3%.
In Kuwait, where occupancy was flat, witnessed a 3.9% rise in rooms yield to $161 as there was a 4% growth in average room rate to $279; while in Muscat, which saw a 5% fall in occupancy rate, the hotel rooms yield sunk 5.4% to $140 despite a 2.1% rise in average room rate to $208.