The hotel occupancy in the Middle East grew by an average of 1.8pps y/y to 68.5% in March 2011, TradeArabia cited a report of Deloitte and STR Global. Dubai had the highest occupancy of 80.7%, up 5.9pps. Hotels in the emirate managed to increase their occupancy despite the increased supply. Abu Dhabi hotel occupancy registered the highest annual growth to 71.2% in March 2011 from 63% a year earlier. The occupancy rate of hotels in Saudi Arabias tourism city of Jeddah stood at 71.1%, down 1.3pps. Hotels in Oman had a 59.5% occupancy and in Beirut the rate was 47.9%. |
Bahrain Middle East Bank made a USD 13mn full repayment of a loan obligation including a USD 1.4mn interest payment taking total repayments by the troubled lender to USD 43mn, the bank said in ... more
National Bank of Abu Dhabi (NBAD), the UAE's largest lender by market value, initiated a USD 17mn fifteen-year Uridashi bond, MENA's first ever, allowing the bank to directly access Japanese ... more
The GCC economies remain insulated from economic and political turbulence in the MENA region and globally but structural challenges continue to constrain sovereign ratings, ratings agency ... more