It looks like as if the travel industry is suffering across the globe. Goa is facing the decline in tourist inflow during the past few years due to the global economy slowdown but this trend does not remain limited to India alone but the middle east countries are also suffering due to the global meltdown. The Tourism industry is the most affected industry in the globe at the moment. There are many Goans working in the middle east countries and such slowdown of the economy can lead to unemployment of hundreds of thousands of Goans in Gulf Countries.
According to the sources, the global meltdown has resulted into diminishing of business in the well developed countries in the middle east. Sources have revealed that the hotels operating in the UAE continue to see the decline in business due to very low occupancy and the room rates of the hotels witnessing the lowest for an October since 2005.
According to the sources, the room rates never went so low in all these years since 2005. The above information has been compiled by the Industry Consultant STR. UAE does not alone receive the tourists but lot of inbound business visitors every year, said the sources.
The sources have revealed that the UAE’s hospitality industry is showing a dip of 2.9 percent during the month of October while the ADR (Average Daily Rates) has dropped drastically to 9.6 percent to AED668.05, the lowest for an October since 2005. As a result, revenue per available room (RevPAR) declined by 12.3 percent to AED505.34.
STR said that October 2016 was the 22nd consecutive month of year-over-year wherein the ADR kept decreasing in the UAE. At the same time, demand has remained strong, up 5 percent year to date. In Dubai, hotels saw occupancy fall by 2 percent to 78 percent, ADR was down 9.8 percent to AED764.63 and RevPAR dropped 11.6 percent to AED596.16.
STR said strong supply growth (up 5.8 percent year to date) has slightly outpaced a year-to-date demand increase (up 5.6%) in the market. In addition to the strong development pipeline, STR analysts attributed Dubai’s performance to a decline in visitors from the drop in oil prices. In Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, STR reported decreases in occupancy (down 7.2 percent to 56.2 percent), ADR (down 3.6 percent to SR796.30) and RevPAR (down 10.6 percent to SR447.46).
STR said as one of the Gulf’s key hubs, Riyadh is heavily dependent on corporate travel but that business has suffered from the drop in oil prices, and coupled with significant supply growth (up 8.9 percent year to date), Riyadh’s performance has slumped. Regionally, hotels in the Middle East reported a 4.4 percent decrease in occupancy to 64 percent, a 9 percent drop in ADR to $174.19 and a 13 percent decline in RevPAR to $111.48.
It is the fact that Lot of Goans are working in Middle East countries and the effect on the hospitality sector may result in the unemployment of many Indians as well as Goans working in those counties. At the same time, Goan tourism industry is also showing a decline in inbound foreign tourists although at the same time there is a substantial increase in the local Indian tourists flying down to Goa on weekends.
