Abu Dhabi tourism figures climb in January

In all the arrivals delivered 855,651 guest nights which is an increase of 26 per cent on the same month-by-month comparison.

Occupancy for the month rose to 77 per cent - which was up ten per cent on January last year and average room rate moved slightly upwards, by two per cent to AED462.

Total hotel revenues climbed 22 per cent to AED 522 million with food and beverage recording 21 per cent growth to AED 194,013,640.

“January reaped the benefits of the international holiday seasons and the hosting of numerous major events in the emirate including the World Future Energy Summit and the Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship,” said HE Jasem Al Darmaki, deputy director general, TCA Abu Dhabi.

“This is an excellent start to a year in which we have stretched our hotel guest target to 3.1 million following last year’s record breaking

performance when we exceeded our hotel guest target and achieved our original 2014 goal of 2.8 million.

“We anticipate being able to maintain this upward momentum given the air capacity uplift to be delivered shortly through new Etihad Airways’ services between Jaipur and Abu Dhabi and from Perth in Australia and Los Angeles and Dallas in the USA.

“These new services will complement greater planned frequency on Etihad’s services from Dublin and New York as well as airberlin’s doubling, next October, of its daily flights from the German capital to the UAE capital.”

India remained the emirate’s primary overseas hotel guest market with 16,221 Indians checking into Abu Dhabi’s accommodation – a jump of 29 per cent on January 2013.

These arrivals delivered 65,937 guest nights, which climbed 15 per cent year-on-year with the average Indian staying just over four nights.

The UK maintained its second place overseas market ranking with 15,208 Britons checking into Abu Dhabi’s hotels – which was up 24 per cent on 2013.

The UK arrivals delivered 64,150 guest nights, which was a lift of 12 per cent year-on-year with the average Briton staying over four nights.

The USA surpassed Germany as the third largest overseas hotel guest market in January with 10,935 Americans staying in the emirates hotels which was a leap of 48 per cent on the same month last year.

The Americans delivered 47,197 hotel guests, which was up 13 per cent on 2013 and stayed, on average, four and a half nights.