Tourism activity restrained

Beirut hotels occupancy rate sees 13 percent drop in first nine months of 2011

Beirut’s hotel sector saw a 13 percent fall in occupancy rate in the first nine months of 2011, according to Ernst & Young’s Middle East Hotel Benchmark survey for September.

Beirut’s hotel occupancy rate reached 55 percent in the first nine months of this year, down from 68 percent in the corresponding period of last year.

The occupancy rate in Beirut was higher than Kuwait (52 percent), and almost equivalent to Sharm El Sheikh and Amman (54 percent). The occupancy in Beirut hotels was lower than the rest of Arab cities included in the survey, with the exception of Cairo (35 percent).

The average room rate in Beirut hotels reached $222, posting a yearly decline of 15 percent. The average room rate in Beirut hotels was lower than Manama, Bahrain ($225), and higher than Dubai ($213), and Abu Dhabi ($203).
The rooms’ yield of Beirut’s hotels attained $123 in the first nine months of 2011, down by 30 percent relative to the same period of last year.

According to the figures of the Ministry of Tourism, Lebanon has lost more than 418,000 visitors during the first nine months of the year, as compared to the same period of 2010.