Uprising in Middle East Negatively Impacting Cairo's Hotel Market

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According to data from STR Global, the latest daily hotel performance figures for Cairo, Egypt, show the dramatic impact of the demonstrations, political unrest and regime change is having on the capital's hotel industry.

Cairo's occupancy levels have been falling continuously since 29 January 2011, four days after the first demonstrations started. The uncertainty and unstable security situation resulted in the majority of hotel guests leaving the city and only a very limited amount of visitors replacing them. The high demand from press and media organizations arriving to cover the unfolding story pushed up average daily rates (ADR).

By the end of February, hotel performance had stabilized at very low levels, reporting occupancy below the 20-percent mark and average room rates of around EGP750, which is on par with the same time last year.

Cairo's daily performance 1 Jan to 7 March 2011
 

"A stable and secure environment is needed to bring visitors back to Egypt, and whilst it is not yet certain when demand will return to normal levels, it is recommendable for the hotels to continue with their current strategy of not dropping average room rates, as it will not stimulate additional demand to counterbalance a potential drop in revenue per available room", commented Elizabeth Randall, managing director of STR Global.

STR Global tracks the daily hotel performance from 24 hotels in the Egyptian capital.

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