The October Pipeline Report from STR Global stated that the Middle East and Africa (MEA) hotel sector is thriving, reported Trade Arabia. With 1066 properties, that is almost 266,602 rooms as of October 2018.
In the Middle East, about 423 hotels (127,177 rooms) are under construction showing a tremendous improvement of 27.4% compared to same time, last year. However, the African region has witnessed a 2.3% decline and accounts for only 139 new hotels (25,983 rooms) under construction, comparatively.
From the Middle East, the UAE topped the list with the largest number of rooms under construction with the total number of rooms at 54,371, which is 33.5% of the existing supply. Saudi Arabia came at a close second with 48,224 rooms.
Hotels registered in the final planning stages in the Middle East were up by 66% compared to the same month in 2017 and accounted for 31,464 rooms in 127 hotels, the report highlighted. But for hotels in the planning stages, 48,416 rooms across 191 hotels were identified but it showed only a slight increase of 0.8% compared to last year.
As far as the African region was concerned, projects under the final planning stages recorded a 45.6% increase compared to last year with 11,325 rooms across 65 properties. For hotels in the planning stage, a 7.3% increase was noticed with 22,236 rooms spread across 121 hotels, the report stated.