Recent hospitality industry reports published by STR and Colliers International have revealed that hotels in the United Arab Emirates have put up a strong performance during the Covid-19 pandemic.

To support the hotel industry still further during the vaccine rollout, Arabian Travel Market (ATM) is this year organising a Hotel Summit on Tuesday May 18th.

ATM itself will take place in-person at the Dubai World Trade Centre on May 16th-19th.

The new hotel-focused event will address and debate the trends and key drivers that will support the Middle East’s recovery, as the vaccine rollout gathers momentum and herd immunity takes effect.

Danielle Curtis, exhibition director Middle East, Arabian Travel Market, said, “According to STR data, the Middle East region was a top performer globally during 2020, with average occupancy of 46 per cent.

“One of best performing countries was the UAE with an average occupancy of 52 per cent and an average daily rate (ADR) of $114.

“Although these figures were 29 per cent and 17 per cent down year-on-year, given the challenges presented by the pandemic, it is a remarkable achievement and proves just how resilient the hotel sector is in the UAE and wider Middle East.

“Furthermore, if we drill down on these figures, ADR in Fujairah and RAK actually rose last year by seven per cent and one per cent respectively, compared with 2019 and over the New Year’s celebrations hotels in Dubai were running average occupancies of 76 per cent with an ADR of $300.”

Dubai had to subsequently place limitations on hospitality, after celebrations drove a spike in Covid-19 cases in January. 

Two sessions will take place at the Hotel Summit on the ATM Global Stage, the first will address the changing roles of hotels, such as work-cations and changing guest expectations and the second discussion will look into the issue of enhancing the hospitality experience, while introducing technological innovation.

Expert panellists will include Marloes Knippenberg, chief executive of Kerten Hospitality; Mark Kirby, chief operating officer of Emaar Hospitality; Jose Silva, chief executive of Jumeirah Group; Guido De Wilde, chief operating officer of Marriott International in the Middle East; and Stefan Leser, chief executive of Langham Hospitality, among others.

A further digital event has also been added to the schedule.