The HVS Middle East Hotel Survey for 2009 encompasses 140 hotels (a total of 39,500 rooms) and our sample includes branded four-star and five-star hotels but excludes super-luxury hotels,as they could skew the results of this survey.

We have chosen to include in our annual survey only those hotels with an operating history of more than three years; this is to avoid the distortion due to the initial years of a hotel operation.

Using our extensive database of hotel operating results for the MiddleEast, a database which has been developed with the continued support of all of the major hotel companies in the region, HVS has again prepared a GOPPAR (gross operating profit per available room) analysis for each market, with the exception of Muscat; here, insufficient data were available for our analysis.

Many questions were raised at the beginning of 2008 about the likely performance of the Middle Eastern cities. Some experts have suggested that there is likely to be some correction in 2008, and others have remained highly confident that the bubble is far from bursting.

HVS has suggested, correctly, that some cities will witness slower growth than others on account of the rapid increase in the number of developments and the risk of an imbalance between supply and demand. We suggested in last year's edition of this survey that certain cities would continue to grow as a result of a shortage of new rooms, improved in frastructure, amore dedicated tourism strategy and enhanced political stability.

We take a closer look in this year's edition at the performance of the key Middle Eastern cities in 2008, analyse the outcome and note the opportunities and threats that lie ahead in the near future, especially in light of the worldwide economic events that are being felt in different degrees by Middle Eastern cities.

We ask the question: ‘How did the markets perform in 2008 and what is the likely performance for 2009?'

Follow the below link to read the complete survey: 

http://www.hvs.com/jump/?f=2860.pdf&c=3904

Hala Matar Choufany is the Managing Director of HVS Dubai and is responsible for the firm's valuation and consulting work in the Middle East and North Africa. She initially joined HVS London in 2005, and moved to HVS Shanghai in September 2006 where she helped grow HVS Shanghai and its business in the Asia region. She relocated to Dubai in September 2007 and looks after HVS's interests in the Middle East. Before joining HVS, Hala had four years' operational and managerial hotel industry experience.

She lectured at Notre Dame University in Lebanon on International Travel and Tourism. Hala holds an MPhil from Leeds University, UK, an MBA from IMHI (Essec- Cornell) University, Paris, France, and a BA in Hospitality Management from Notre Dame University, Lebanon. Hala has worked on several midscale and large-scale mixed-use developments and has conducted numerous valuations, feasibility studies, operator search, return on investment and market studies in Europe, Middle East and Asia.

For further information, please contact:
Hala Matar Choufany – Managing Director, Dubai
Email: hchoufany@hvs.com
Direct Line: +971 50 4597930

Or visit our website at www.hvs.com © HVS 2009