Middle East, Africa report dips in hotel construction: STR

According to STR’s October 2019 hotel pipeline data, the Middle East has 434 hotels with 119,991 rooms under construction in the Middle East while Africa has 135 hotels with 24,939 rooms underway. 

The Middle East total represented a 5.7 percent year-over-year decrease in the number of rooms in the final phase of the development pipeline. The region reported an additional 28,541 rooms in the final planning stage and 45,273 rooms in the planning stage. 

The Africa room construction total, meanwhile, was down 4 percent year over year. Africa had 18,807 rooms in final planning and 22,629 rooms in the planning stage.

Between the Middle East and Africa, five countries had more than 4,000 rooms under construction. The United Arab Emirates led with 52,810 rooms, representing 30.1 percent of the market’s existing supply, followed by Saudi Arabia (38,912 rooms, 38.3 percent of existing supply). Qatar follows with 14,318 rooms (52.9 percent), then Oman with 5,049 rooms (26.6 percent) and Egypt with 4,976 rooms (2.9 percent).