Although the rate of recovery of the MENA (Middle East and North Africa) hotel market has slowed in the second quarter of 2021, the core strategy of leveraging the domestic market has been critical to this recovery as inbound visitation improves, a report said.

While the announcement of new entry restrictions on an additional 19 countries has had a significant impact on inbound tourism recovery in Bahrain, the market is still expected to achieve a year-on-year (Y-o-Y) improvement of 53% in 2021, added the Mena Hotel Market Forecast – August 2021 published by Colliers, a global leader in commercial real estate services.

Hotels in Sharjah have achieved an average increase in demand of 4% per month from over the last 12 months, the report noted. A restricted observance of Hajj in 2021, limited to 60,000 pilgrims from within Saudi Arabia resulted in significantly reduced demand in the holy cities while the Riyadh market improved, due to demand for 4-star and lower positioned 5-star hotels. This has contributed to an improved outlook for Riyadh in the full year.

Return of GCC led demand into Egypt has benefited the Cairo market. In combination with recovery in the CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States) market, sustained recovery is expected in all hotel markets, the report said.