Hotels in Jeddah saw a 30% surge in profits during the month, according to the latest HotStats survey of full-service hotels in six MENA cities by TRI Hospitality Consulting. March was a busy month in Jeddah with average occupancy at four and five star chain hotels in the city increased 7.2% points and Average Room Rates (ARR) increased 12.0% during the month, compared to the same period last year.
Monthly occupancy stood at 81.1% at an ARR of US$220.50. Revenue Per Available Room (RevPAR) for the month surged 22.9% to US$178.90 and this led to profits in terms of Gross Operating Profit Per Available Room (GOPPAR) increasing by 29.6% during the month compared to last year.
“Performance of hotels in Jeddah has shown significant improvement in the last few months on the back of solid growth in tourism activities, both business and leisure. The first quarter results from HotStats show a 26.7% growth RevPAR, but what is more interesting is that profits (GOPPAR) have grown by 41.8% during this period compared to Q1 2011”, commented Peter Goddard, managing director of TRI Hospitality Consulting in Dubai.
The performance trend in Riyadh largely remained stable from last month with hotels showing mixed results in March. Occupancy levels increased 1.5% points during the month to 68.9% and ARR declined 3.4% to US$262.4 during the month. Other key performance indicators such as Total Revenue Per Available Room (TRevPAR) and GOPPAR saw only marginal change during the month and stood at US$287.24 and US$166.52 respectively.
In Egypt, hotels in Cairo continued to show signs of recovery during the month. Occupancy levels for full service hotels in the capital touched 47.9%, growing by 23.4 percentage points from the same period last year, although ARR dropped 9.6% to US$109.81. Nevertheless, the 76.5% growth in rooms revenue (RevPAR) and 12.6% point drop in payroll costs have caused GOPPAR to grow by 164.7% to US$51.57 compared to US$19.48 during the same period previous year.
Dubai hotels show growth in revenues and profits while Abu Dhabi continue to see rates and profits drop. Hotels in Dubai reported growth in revenues and profits while Abu Dhabi saw rates and profits decline in March 2012, according to the latest HotStats survey of full-service hotels in six MENA cities by TRI Hospitality Consulting.
Revenue Per Available Room (RevPAR) in Dubai increased 9.3% to US$298.29 in March driven by a 6.8% growth in Average Room Rate (ARR) to US$341.77 and a relatively marginal increase of 2.0% point in occupancy. In terms of profits, GOPPAR for the month saw a growth of 12.6% to US$271.5, significantly higher than the other GCC city surveyed by HotStats.