More than 2.2 million hotel guests have checked into Abu Dhabi’s 148 hotels and hotel apartments in the first ten months of this year – a 16 per cent growth on last year’s record performance – with October delivering a record monthly guest intake, guest nights tally, occupancy rate and revenues.

Figures just released by Abu Dhabi Tourism & Culture Authority put the total number of arrivals this year at 2,270,000 with guest nights rising 26 per cent year-on-year to over seven million.

October proved to be a monthly record chalking up 288,268 guest arrivals – a jump of 29 per cent on the same month last year; 882,470 guest nights – which lunged 31 per cent; a healthy 79 per cent occupancy rate, which was up by ten per cent and a revenue stream of AED 578.4 million, which was 28 per cent more than October 2012.

“The best news yet is that the average room rate went up by seven per cent to 507 Dirhams, or US$138, which still represents terrific value given the high standard of accommodation and service offered in the destination,” said HE Mubarak Al Muhairi, director general, TCA Abu Dhabi.

“The uplift is even better when judged in context of the fact that we have 12 more hotels and an additional 2,187 rooms available than at this time last year.

“October benefited from the Eid break and from a series of major events staged throughout the emirate. We can look forward with quiet optimism to a year-end of similar, if not better performance given that November had a number of event highlights, not least the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, and December should benefit from the traditional National Day and seasonal breaks and increased overseas product packaging.

“We have positive sentiment for end-of-year results given that we are within comfortable reach of our 2.5 million guest target.”