Dubai’s hospitality sector witnessed decent occupancy rates in May while recording an increase in occupancy in the first two weeks of Ramadan amid falling room rates.

Dubai recorded a 2.9% increase in occupancy over the two-week period, but average daily rate (ADR) was down 9%, resulting in a 6.4% decrease in RevPar according to STR. 

Releasing its May figures for the regional hospitality markets, Ernst and Young reported that Dubai hotels recorded an average occupancy of 86% followed by 81% in Abu Dhabi and 74.2% in Ras Al Khaimah.

While occupancy rates remained high in both Dubai and Abu Dhabi, the hospitality markets witnessed a decrease in RevPAR of 7 and 8.9%, respectively, in May 2016. This was mainly due to the drop in average daily rates in both cities.

Dubai also saw a drop in RevPAR from $200 in May 2015 to $186 in May 2016 with ADR falling to 8.2% to $274 from $299.

Abu Dhabi’s hospitality market witnessed a drop in RevPAR by 8.9% in May 2016 when compared to the same period last year, this was mainly due to the drop in ADR from $127 in May 2015 to $115 in May 2016.

There are approximately 93 hotels with 27,344 rooms under contract in the UAE, second highest after Saudi Arabia.