The number of hotel rooms under construction in the Middle East and Africa (MEA) region for the second quarter stood at 135,740 rooms, down 3.6 per cent over last year, according to June pipeline data from STR, a leading provider of premium data benchmarking, analytics and marketplace insight.
The region’s hotel construction market also witnessed a 9 per cent drop in the number of rooms in the final planning stage for Q2 which hit 45,313 over last year, while the number of rooms in the planning stage fell 13.8 per cent to 57,953.
The region’s construction activity was mainly driven by regional heavyweights – Saudi Arabia (39,362) and UAE (37,954).
Globally, Europe remained the only region which had registered a year-over-year increase in hotel rooms in construction, stated the report.
The European market witnessed a flurry of activity in the hotel construction sector, with a record 237,304 rooms under construction during the period, up 7.9 per cent over last year. Germany (49,027) and the UK (36,444) were the main heavyweights leading European sector in total rooms in construction.
Those in the final planning stage rose 13 per cent to 177,165 rooms, while those in planning stage stood at 147,712 rooms, down 6.4 per cent over last year.
On the Asia-Pacific market, STR report said a total of 476,302 rooms were under construction (-2.8 per cent), while those in the final planning stage stood at 181,453 rooms (+8.8 per cent). A total of 271,268 rooms were in the planning stage, up 13.6 per cent over last year.
Among countries in the region, China has the most rooms in construction (290,619), followed by Vietnam (31,732).
On Americas, the report said a total of 243,395 rooms were under construction (-11.2 per cent).
There was a 19.8 per cent plunge in the number of hotel rooms in the final planning stage which hit 243,809 rooms, while those in the planning stage surged 25.9 per cent to 297,929 rooms, stated the STR report.
The US holds the majority of rooms in construction in the region. In addition to the US, Mexico (13,721) and Canada (9,325) have the highest number of rooms in construction, it added.
