Dubai hoteliers fight numerous challenges; change business models – ZAWYA

Dubai hoteliers fight numerous challenges; change business models – ZAWYA

Dubai hoteliers fight numerous challenges; change business models | ZAWYA MENA Edition HomeBusinessArticleDubai hoteliers fight numerous challenges; change business models Dubai will miss its longstanding target to attract 20 million international visitors annually by 2020    People swim at a swimming pool in the Atlantis The Palm hotel, as the Emirates reopen to tourism amid coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Dubai, United Arab Emirates July 7, 2020. Dubai's tourism and hospitality sector has shed much of its workforce following the coronavirus outbreak and the industry will take years to recover to pre-pandemic activity levels, with some hotel owners now facing a fight for survival.The emirate's tourism sector was already in the doldrums prior to covid-19 as growth ebbed. Dubai will miss its longstanding target to attract 20 million international visitors annually by 2020, peaking at 16.7 million in 2019. That failure led to an oversupply of hotel rooms, which have nearly doubled in number since 2010. Including hotel apartments, these totalled 126,120 in 2019 as 25 new hotels opened last year.Average daily room rates were falling about 10 percent annually before the pandemic brought the sector to a halt with the UAE's suspension of all international flights in late March.The emirate's