Countries across the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) are set to deliver nearly 126,000 new hotel rooms by 2030, boosting existing supply by 25 per cent and taking total room inventory to 616,000, according to new insight from leading real estate advisory and hospitality property consultancy, Cavendish Maxwell.
The six GCC countries – the UAE, KSA, Oman, Bahrain, Kuwait and Qatar – currently have close to 490,000 rooms in operation, with around 43 per cent in the UAE. As of August 2026, there were 212,135 keys in the Emirates, including around 151,380 in Dubai.
Saudi Arabia leads the GCC hotel expansion, with almost 94,500 new rooms in the pipeline, taking its planned 2030 total to nearly 275,300. In second place is the UAE, which has an upcoming supply of more than 23,000 rooms, including 11,180 in Dubai.
Cavendish Maxwell’s research, released at the 2026 edition of Future Hospitality Summit World, also reveals GCC hotel occupancy and average daily rates (ADR) for the first 8 months of 2026 when, after a strong start to the year, regional tension affected international travel and forced the hospitality market to adjust to reduced demand.
Year-on-year, occupancy rates from January to August fell in all GCC countries, but the percentage drop varied widely. With 59 per cent occupancy, Saudi Arabia fared the best, with a decline of just under 3 per cent compared to the same period in 2026. Bahrain, which averaged just under 37 per cent occupancy, saw the biggest drop, at 31 per cent.
Occupancy averaged 59 per cent in the UAE, down almost a quarter, with Dubai seeing a 27 per cent drop. Elsewhere, occupancy stood at approximately 38 per cent in Kuwait (down 18 per cent); 48 per cent in Oman (down 13 per cent), 60 per cent in Qatar (down 13 per cent) and 48 per cent in Oman (down 13 per cent).