AS many as 514 hotels totalling 147,746 rooms are in the pipeline in the Middle East, while 319 hotels totalling 60,713 rooms are under contract in Africa, according to a recent report.
The December 2015 STR Global Pipeline Report said ‘under contract’ includes projects in the in construction, final planning and planning stages, but does not include projects in the unconfirmed stage.The ‘under contract’ total in the Middle East represents a 38.7 per cent increase in rooms compared with December 2014 and a 51.5 per cent year-over-year increase in rooms under construction. The Middle East reported 80,999 rooms in 248 hotels under construction for the month.The under contract total in the Northern Africa and Southern Africa region represents a 51 per cent increase in rooms under contract compared with December 2014 and a 35.2 per cent year-over-year increase in rooms under construction. Africa reported 27,790 rooms in 155 hotels under construction for the month.Among the key markets in the region, Makkah in Saudi Arabia reported the largest number of rooms under construction with 21,068 rooms in 13 hotels. Meanwhile, three other markets reported more than 5,000 rooms under construction – Dubai, UAE (20,260 rooms in 63 hotels); Doha, Qatar (6,926 rooms in 29 hotels); and Riyadh, Saudi Arabia (6,595 rooms in 29 hotels).