Dubai is still looking to get 20 million visitors to the Emirate by the time of the 2020 Expo, and has offered incentives for hotel development to accommodate all of those guests.
Over the summer, we noted that demand for Dubai hotels was up 24.6 percent year-over-year for July, but STR credited that bump to the Eid al-Fitr festivities. The hotels saw a 17.6-percent increase in occupancy to 67.5 percent for the month, while RevPAR increased 7.5 percent.
The growth is continuing. According to EY, hotel occupancy in Dubai rose by nearly 5 percent in November year-over-year to be the top performing market in the Middle East and North Africa.
EY's November 2016 GCC Key Performance Highlights report indicates that Dubai's hotels achieved an occupancy rate of 89.5 percent compared to 84.8 percent in November 2015.
It's not all good news, though: According to Yousef Wahbah, MENA head of transaction real estate at EY, ADR in Dubai hotels dropped by 8.6 percent, resulting in a decline in RevPAR of 3.6 percent.