Amid the historic Expo 2020 Dubai’s conclusion, Dubai hotel occupancies reached their highest levels in 15 years. Driven by the final weeks of the show, Dubai hotel occupancies averaged 91.7 percent in March 2022. Occupancies were at the highest on March 24 – 96 percent.
The last time monthly occupancy in Dubai reached 90 percent was March 2007 when there were roughly 90,000 fewer rooms in the market, according to STR.
STR also found that for March 2022, ADR averaged AED891.46 and RevPAR averaged AED817.90.
Dubai hotel occupancies starting strong in 2022
In a separate report, the 763 operational Dubai hotels recorded an average occupancy of 78 percent up to February 2022. February this year saw the opening of the Museum of the Future – the latest global tourism icon of the modern emirate.
The latest Dubai Tourism Performance Report looked at hotel and tourism performance between January and February this year. It found that 2.19 million overnight visitors were registered in the emirate. With 979,700 in January, that means that more than 1.2 million overnight visitors came in February alone.
Of the 144 five-star hotels in the emirate, occupancy averaged 75 percent. The 183 four-stars averaged 78 percent, as did the 245 one- to three-star hotels. Across all Dubai hotels, there were more than 6.3 million occupied room nights between January and February.
Museum of the Future helping hotels
Two of the hotels closest to the Museum of the Future are starting to find brand new business opportunities thanks to the landmark attraction. Both the Voco Dubai and the 25hours Dubai are a stone’s throw from the museum and are already seeing positive changes in business thanks to it.
It comes as the Museum of the Future is reportedly already selling up to 3,000 tickets each day.
25hours Dubai director of marketing and communications Josh Craddock said to Hotelier Middle East: “It’s brought a great buzz to the local area for sure. The museum is now lit up every night which is a sight to behold.”
The lively 25hours hotel is under the same ownership as the museum, giving the two even more reason to collaborate. On the day of the Museum of the Future’s opening, the hotel hosted an opening celebration at one of its outlets.