Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/hc8hsn/united_arab_emirat) has announced the addition of the "United Arab Emirates Tourism Report Q2 2012" report to their offering.

BMI's United Arab Emirates Tourism Report provides industry professionals and strategists, corporate analysts, tourism associations, government departments and regulatory bodies with independent forecasts and competitive intelligence on United Arab Emirates's tourism industry.

Tourism Overview:

Although the final data for Dubai, which should be reasonably strong, has yet to be released, the tourism sector in the UAE looks to have achieved another good year in 2011, after a strong recovery in 2010. In Abu Dhabi, complete figures for 2011 show a robust annual increase in the number of tourists (including UAE arrivals) at hotels and hotel apartments of 16.6% year-on-year (y-o-y), to over 2.1mn guests, despite a fall in arrivals y-o-y in August. The outturn was well ahead of the 2mn-guest target set by the authorities. In Sharjah, final data for 2011 show tourist arrivals (including UAE nationals) at hotels and hotel apartments reached over 1.56mn, a slight increase of 0.4% y-o-y. In Dubai, data for January- September 2011 showed a healthy 11% y-o-y increase in hotel guests (including UAE residents) to 6.64mn. There were no more recent figures at the time of writing.

Hospitality

Despite incomplete data for Dubai, there was still impressive growth in the hospitality sector in 2011. In Abu Dhabi, the sector recorded a strong performance, with total guest nights increasing by 22% y-o-y to 6.3mn nights. Occupancy levels during the year were up by 7% y-o-y to 69%, while the average length of stay rose by 5% to about three nights. Hotel and hotel apartment revenue was up by a modest 3% y-o-y to around AED4.4bn (US$1.2bn), while the average room rate fell by 14% to AED490 (US$133), which improved competitiveness. Sharjah achieved solid results in terms of the number of hotel and hotel apartment room nights sold during 2011, with a total of over 1.8mn, an increase of over 17% y-o-y. This was presumably due to guests staying longer, as there was little growth in the number of visitors. The overall occupancy rate of hotels and hotel apartments edged up to 74%. In Dubai, there was a 26% y-o-y increase in the number of guest nights at hotels in 9M11 to about 23.7mn.

Forecast Scenario

After strong growth in the tourism sector in 2010 and 2011, we maintain that growth in foreign tourist arrivals will be slow noticeably in 2012, but remain relatively favourable. The outlook is based on solid economic growth in the Middle East but a weak growth scenario for the Eurozone (the two major source regions). In the Eurozone, we expect a mild recession over 2012, with growth in the coming years likely to be very weak. Our economic growth projections for the region have been revised down to 1.6% for 2011, -0.5% in 2012 and 1.2% in 2013. For the UK, the top source market for inbound tourists to Dubai in 2009 and 2010, our revised down economic growth forecasts are 0.6% and 1.7% in 2012 and 2013 respectively, following 1.0% in 2011.

Companies Mentioned

-Emirates

-Etihad Airways

For more information visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/hc8hsn/united_arab_emirat