European hotel giant sees Dubai demand surge

Accor, Europe’s biggest hotel company, said on Sunday demand at its 14 hotels in Dubai jumped in the first quarter as tourism and business travel revived. Revenue per available room for Accor’s 4,000 rooms in Dubai surged 25 percent compared with the year-earlier period, Christophe Landais, the company’s Middle East managing director, said. Occupancy averaged 85 percent in the quarter, he said. “The business is back in Dubai,” Landais said. “We are seeing more demand on both leisure and business travel.” Occupancy rates averaged 78 percent in 2011, he said. Accor will open two additional hotels in Dubai before the end of this year, including one on the artificial island Palm Jumeirah. The hotel openings were delayed by about seven months after the global credit crisis caused banks to tighten lending for real estate projects. Property prices slid by more than 65 percent, Craig Plumb, head of research at Jones Lang LaSalle, said in March. Adding 18,000 rooms to the market in the past two years hasn’t had a significant impact on rates, Accor’s Landais said. Dubai received 9.3 million tourists last year, up 10 percent from 2010, pushing up hotel revenue by 20 percent, the emirate’s tourism department said March 7.