Taimur Khan, head of research at CBRE, notes that the robust performance in KSA has positioned hospitality indicators comfortably above their 2019 levels. Here, he tells us more.

Year-on-year growth

In the year to September 2023, Saudi Arabia’s hospitality has seen uniform improvements in its key performance indicators. Notably over this period, the average occupancy rate increased by 5.9 percentage points. This was furthermore accompanied by an 18.4 percent increase in its ADR and a 31.2 percent increase in RevPAR.

Saudi Arabia’s hospitality resilience

In the year to September 2023, Saudi Arabia saw a 1.2 percentage points rise in average occupancy levels compared to 2019, indicating a 9.6 percent increase in its ADR and a 11.8 percent increase in its RevPAR.

Jeddah’s soaring success

In Jeddah, year-to-date to September 2023, average occupancy rose by 7.3 percentage points. Although the ADR experienced a slight 0.1 percent decline. Thus. this led Jeddah’s RevPAR to expand by 12.7 percent.

Khobar’s hospitality dynamics

Over this period, in Khobar, the average occupancy rate increased by 7.7 percentage points, while its ADR declined by 4.9 percent. Thus, resulted in an improvement of 9.0 percent in RevPAR.

Riyadh’s momentum

In Riyadh, the average occupancy saw a rise of 3.1 percentage points. The ADR improved by 13.1 percent, culminating in a RevPAR growth of 19.1 percent in the capital.

Religious seasons

Both Makkah and Madinah performed consistently as they concluded the religious high seasons. Madinah’s average occupancy rate saw an expansion of 10.1 percentage points. ADR marked a 38.1 percent upsurge, which resulted in RevPAR improving by 60.8 percent.

Makkah’s ascendancy

As for Makkah, the average occupancy rate stood 5.9 percentage points higher. Thus, its ADR rose by 27.2 percent year-on-year in the year to September 2023. Consequently, RevPAR recorded a strong growth rate of 40.6 percent.