Beirut achieves highest growth in hotel room revenues worldwide.

Beirut recorded the highest growth rate in hotel room revenues, not just in the Middle East, but also worldwide, according to a recent report by Deloitte, the leftist daily AS SAFIR reported Tuesday. Hotel room revenues increased by 124.4 percent, the report said. Rob O'Hanlon, Tourism, Hotel and Leisure partner at Deloitte in the Middle East commented on the report saying, "Increasing political stability in the country led to a 72.1 percent increase in the city's hotel occupancy, which reached 66.9 percent, while average room rates grew 30.3 percent to reach $175" per night. Tourists have been wary of visiting Lebanon since 2005, when ex-Premier Rafik al-Hariri was assassinated. This was followed by the 2006 33-day war between Israel and Hizbullah and the eighteen month-long sit-in by the opposition, which ended in May 2008. Increased stability since then has led to an influx of tourists. (See MER 17/8/2009)

Meanwhile, the global hotel industry recorded a double-digit decline in hotel room revenues in the first half of 2009 due to the global financial crisis, according to the report. All regions saw hotel room revenues fall by more than 15 percent, AS SAFIR said. Hotels in the Middle East were least affected by the crisis, while those in Europe were most affected, the report noted.