Dubai, UAE–Average occupancy for the hotel sector in 2022 stood at 73 percent, one of the highest in the world, rising from 67 percent in 2021. The figure is just short of the 75 percent occupancy in the pre-pandemic period of 2019.
The high occupancy is noteworthy as it was achieved despite a 16 percent increase in room supply in 2022 compared to 2019. Dubai’s hotel inventory at the end of December 2022 comprised of 146,496 rooms at 804 hotel establishments, compared to 126,120 rooms available at the end of December 2019 across 741 establishments.
The total number of hotels in 2022 marked a six percent growth over 2021, with 755 hotel establishments offering 137,950 rooms, figures that highlight the continued strong investor confidence in Dubai’s tourism sector.
The hotel sector outperformed pre-pandemic levels across all other key measurements – Occupied Room Nights, Average Daily Rate (ADR) and Revenue Per Available Room (RevPAR). Occupied room nights reached a record high of 37.43 million room nights in 2022, registering a 19 percent increase vs. 2021 (31.47 million) and a 17 percent increase over the pre-pandemic period of 2019, which yielded 32.11 million occupied room nights.
The ADR of AED536 in 2022 surpassed the ADRs for both 2021 (AED451) and 2019 (AED415), with 19 percent and 29 percent increases respectively.
The hotel sector’s robust performance is also evident in its RevPAR growth – an increase of 30 percent compared to 2021 (AED391 v AED301) and an increase of 25 percent over the pre-pandemic period of 2019 (RevPAR of AED312).
Celebrity-led global campaigns
One of the factors behind Dubai’s success in 2022 can be attributed to global campaigns conducted in collaboration with regional and international celebrities, opinion leaders, influencers and community personalities that highlighted the city’s appeal and brought to life the myriad experiences it offers.
One such campaign is Dubai Presents, which takes a novel approach to global destination marketing, using a highly stylised movie approach to create engaging content. Shot against the backdrop of some of Dubai’s most iconic landmarks and unique hidden locations, these short films feature Hollywood stars such as Jessica Alba and Zac Efron.
The ‘Where the World Celebrates’ global campaign that coincided with the FIFA World Cup in Qatar featured French football star Karim Benzema.