The Middle East/Africa region reported mostly positive performance results in April 2012 when reported in US dollars, according to data compiled by STR Global. The figures for April show that the region’s occupancy jumped 10.0% to 63.9%, its average daily rate fell 3.6% and its revenue per available room rose 6.1%.
“Northern Africa continued to report strong bounces off weaker occupancy performance last year”, said Elizabeth Randall, managing director of STR Global.
“The Middle East put in a solid performance with the fifth month of consecutive occupancy growth supported by eight months of consecutive demand improvements. While Southern Africa as a region reported RevPAR declines in USD for the month and year to date, South Africa is continuing to see growth and reported RevPAR increases in local currency for the same time frames”.
Highlights among the region’s key markets for April 2012 include year-over-year comparisons with Manama, Bahrain jumping 69.5% in occupancy to 42.5%, reporting the largest increase in that metric, followed by Cairo, Egypt, with a 67.8% increase to 52.5%. Abu Dhabi showed a decline of -13.5% to 59.7%, and Riyadh -11.3% to 65.5%, posted the largest occupancy decreases for the month. Manama rose 30.4% in ADR, reporting the largest increase in that metric, followed by Dubai with a 10.7-% increase.
The two markets that experienced double-digit ADR decreases are Cape Town with -14.6% and Cairo with -13.0%. Four markets experienced RevPAR increases of more than 25% which included Manama (+121.1%); Cairo (+46.1%); Amman, Jordan (+30.7%); and Muscat, Oman (+27.5%). And finally, Riyadh ended the month with the largest RevPAR decrease, falling 16.7%, followed by Abu Dhabi with a -14.0% decrease.