Dubai 's booming hospitality industry continued its impressive growth levels, in the third quarter of 2006 as well with 14 per cent increase in hotel revenues compared with the corresponding period last year. Hotel room occupancy increased to 85 per cent.

According to data released by the Dubai Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DTCM), Dubai hotels and hotel apartments played host to 1,647,450 guests during July and September, an increase of 3.2 per cent compared with third quarter of 2005.

The guest nights rose by 7.3 per cent with the third quarter of 2006 logging in a total of 4,484,413. The most impressive growth was in revenues which totaled AED 2,039,051,655, a 14 per cent rise over the previous year's corresponding period. Of the total business, 86.8 per cent revenues were generated by hotels.

Expressing happiness at the stellar performance by the Dubai hotel establishments, the DTCM Director General, Mr. Khalid A bin Sulayem, said: ""This good performance confirms Dubai 's rising stature on the world tourism map. Our aggressive promotional and marketing agenda has been helping the hospitality industry grow further and post impressive results. This is a huge achievement and clearly reflects the success of public-private sector partnership."

The number of operating hotel and hotel apartments in the emirate during the third quarter 2006 was 412, almost 5.1 per cent more than the same period last year. The room inventory rose by seven per cent and stood at 31,041 during the period reviewed, while total hotel rooms occupied jump by 9.5 per cent.

Hotel room occupancy increased by 2.3 per cent to 85 per cent, said to be one of the highest in the world. The total hotel beds available increased by 5.6 per cent to reach 50,282 mark. A total of 8,882 flats are available in the hotel apartments segment, 16.2 per cent more as against the 2005 third quarter figure. Flat occupancy rate also rose to reach 83.9 per cent.