The number of people staying at Abu Dhabi hotels rose to more than 1m in the first four months of the year and the emirate is on target to hit its 2014 target of 3.2m hotel guests, the Abu Dhabi Tourism & Culture Authority (TCA Abu Dhabi) said this morning.
“Year-to-date, the emirate has received 1,139,408 guests – up by almost a third (31 per cent) on 2013,” the authority said in a statement. “Guest nights have risen 23 per cent to 3,514,572, occupancy is up 8 per cent to 79 per cent and total revenues have increased 14 per cent to AED 2,162 billion (US $589 million). The only slippage is in average length of stay which dropped 6 per cent to 3.08 nights.”
More than 300,000 people checked into Abu Dhabi hotels in April. This was 29 per cent higher than in the same month of 2013. Guest nights rose 26 per cent to 933,809. Occupancy levels rose 10 per cent to 79 per cent and revenues rose 23 per cent to AED 577 million (US $157 million).
“Our immediate challenge is to address the average-length-of-stay which dipped in April by 2 per cent to 3.07 nights,” deputy TCA Abu Dhabi director general Jasem al-Darmaki said. “We are working on initiatives to encourage more products into the market and to step up the international trade and consumer awareness of the destination and its breadth of offering.”