Abu Dhabi Hotels achieve double-digit growth against key indicators

Abu Dhabi (WAM): Abu Dhabi's 153 hotels and hotel apartments have continued their upward momentum in attracting increasing guest numbers according to figures released by Abu Dhabi Tourism and Culture Authority, TCA Abu Dhabi. The figures show that 304,637 people checked into the emirate s accommodation during April, a 29% rise on the same month last year. Guest nights rose 26% to 933,809 with occupancy levels lifting 10% to 79% and revenues climbing 23% to Dh 577 million. Jasem Al Darmaki, Deputy Director-General, TCA Abu Dhabi, said, "Our immediate challenge is to address the average-length-of-stay which dipped in April by 2% to 3.07 nights. 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." During April, the U.K. was the best performing overseas market for the destination with 19,010 Britons checking into Abu Dhabi hotels, a 34% rise on last year. They delivered 84,395 guest nights, which was an increase of 24%, staying, on average, 4.44 nights, which slipped by 7%. Indians were the next largest buyers of Abu Dhabi accommodation, with 18,790 checking into the emirate s hotels, 35% more than the same month last year. They accounted for 70,835 guest nights, up 24% on last year, and they stayed, on average 3.77 nights. "April was a month when we benefitted greatly from the seventh season playoffs of the IPL tournament with many of the games being held in Abu Dhabi and attracting significant audiences from the domestic and Indian markets," explained Al Darmaki. Guest numbers from China stormed ahead by 309% in April with 13,501 Chinese nationals staying in the emirate s accommodation. "Much of this is directly accountable to the NU SKIN mega incentives which brought upwards of 6,000 guests to our hotels," said Al Darmaki. Guest nights attributable to the Chinese in April were 33,505, which is a quadrupling of last year’s performance with the average-length-of-stay coming in at 2.48 nights. Abu Dhabi s hotel performance in the first four months has left the destination well on course for its 3.2 million hotel guest target this year. Year-to-date, the emirate has received 1,139,408 guests, up by almost a third on 2013. Guest nights have risen 23% to 3,514,572, occupancy is up 8% to 79% and total revenues have increased by 14%. The only slippage is in average length of stay which dropped 6% to 3.08 nights. Year-to-date, top performing sources were the domestic market, which grew 29% to 365,925 guests; India, which is the lead international market with arrivals increasing 38%: the U.K. which has delivered a 27% rise in guest uptake and Germany, which has climbed 13%. China delivered the most percentage growth with arrivals shooting up 232% making the Republic Abu Dhabi s fourth highest performing overseas market. – Emirates News Agency, WAM