Dubai has most hotels under construction in the world

A NEW report by hotel projects tracker website, tophotelprojects.com, shows that Dubai is still undergoing a construction boom with the highest number of hotel projects in the world at the moment.With 97 hotels under development and 35,124 rooms under way, Dubai tops the list, with Abu Dhabi coming in second with 66 hotels and 21, 572 rooms. “The hotel construction and investment figures indicate the continuously growing tourism development, in terms of leisure as well as business activities in the Arab region,” said a spokesperson from tophotelprojects.com.

Next in the list are Berlin with 49 hotels, New York City with 43, and Moscow with 32. Las Vegas has 17 hotel projects, but with 31,100 rooms in the pipeline.

The report analysed 4,300 projects worldwide, and listed the top 11 cities worldwide with most hotel projects.

Apart from Dubai and Abu Dhabi topping the list, other Middle Eastern countries to make the cut were: Marrakech, Morocco (24 hotels, 6,384 rooms); Makkah, Saudi Arabia (14 hotels, 6,988 rooms); and, Ras Al Khaimah (14 hotels, 4,607 rooms).

“Despite the credit crunch, the hotel development business in the UAE keeps doing well,” said the spokesperson.

He referred to the “amazing Dubailand project” as well as the ‘Asia Asia’ hotel project with nearly 6,500 guest rooms, scheduled to open in the coming years.

Dubai should expect further increases in tourists and business travellers he added, thanks to the Burj Khalifa, which remains the tallest building in the world, and a new, large international hub for long-distance flights.