Dubai Hotels Cut Prices as Visitors Are No-Shows

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(DUBAI, UAE) -- Hotels and hotel chains with properties in Dubai aren't used to normal times. For the past few years, they've benefited from a boon in tourism and business that filled their rooms. During the big expos like Cityscape and the Dubai Air Show, hotel rooms went up and up in price and the visitors paid because they had no choice.

Most tourists in Dubai come from Europe. With the continent in recession, hotels are seeing occupancy rates down as much as 25 percent from last year.

Golden Tulip group owns 41 mid-range hotels in the Middle East, 11 of them in the UAE, in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and Sharjah emirates. According to Amine Moukarzel, senior vice president and managing director of Golden Tulip, "the situation is very dire indeed, and I believe that all hotels in Dubai are experiencing much lower rates than last year because people right now are really starting to cut down on travel budgets."

Prices at Hilton hotels around the world will be up to 50 percent lower for weekend stays booked before August 31, 2009. This is valid in 220 hotels -- Hilton, Conrad Hotels and Resorts, The Waldorf-Astoria Collection, Doubletree by Hilton and Hilton Garden Inn -- in 45 countries including the Middle East.

At the luxurious Atlantis on Palm Jumeirah that opened to fireworks and stars in late November, guests wanting to stay over the holidays had to book for a minimum of seven nights.

To deal with the situation, Dubai's Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DTCM) has announced a new marketing campaign over the internet and press to attract visitors to the Dubai Shopping Festival that begins today and lasts till mid-February.

According to Khalid Ahmed bin Sulayem, director general of DTCM, additional discounts of 40-60 percent on rooms and 25 percent on food and beverages are expected.

 

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