The 2013 first half-yearly statistics released by the Sharjah Commerce and Tourism Development Authority put the hotel occupancy in the emirate at more than 71%, compared to 66% last year, in an overall increase of 3%.
With a total number of 951,592 guests staying in the emirate’s 103 hotel establishments (48 hotels and 55 hotel apartments), an overall increase of 9% in guest numbers was registered.
The guests were roughly split between hotels and hotel apartments with 536,047 staying in hotels and 415,545 choosing to stay in hotel apartments, whereas 874,977 guests stayed in the emirates hotel same period last year with 511,620 staying in hotels in hotels and 363,357 in hotel apartments.
The report also shows a 7% jump in the number of hotel room nights and hotel apartment room nights from 999,599 last year (621,359 hotel room nights and 378,249 hotel apartments room nights) to 1,071,829 (611,445 hotel room nights and 460,387 hotel apartments room nights) this year. Thanks to the encouraging investments made in the hospitality in recent years, the capacity of the emirate’s hospitality sector will jump to 12,000 rooms over the next two years.
Following visitor patterns in recent years, the Europeans once again took the lion’s share at 37% with some 347,480 tourists from Europe visiting the emirate in the first half of 2013. Amongst the Europeans, Russian tourists lead with 23%.
The Europeans were closely followed by the GCC tourists (34%) with some 324,239 people visiting the emirate. Asian visitors formed 14% whereas Arab visitors from other countries across the Middle East formed 10%. The Americans, the Africans and Scandinavian tourists formed 5% of the visiting tourist population so far this year.
Commenting on the half-yearly statistics, SCTDA Chairman Mohamed Ali Al Noman, said, “These numbers are a testament to the growth and resilience of Sharjah’s tourism sector, and a reflection of the positive development witnessed by the sector and the path to excellence that the emirate has been pursuing.”
The half-yearly statistics report suggests that the tourism sector in Sharjah continues to be influenced and driven by its celebrated tourist attractions, heritage, cultural activities and fun and games events, not to mention numerous special offerings and promotions by hotel establishments.
“This year we have stepped up our efforts to target local, regional and international tourism markets. The Sharjah Light Festival, held in February this year, celebrating the emirate’s magnificent monuments and landmarks, attracted great number of visitors. The emirate hosted this year as well ‘Sharjah Biennial’ for two months alongside with ‘Sharjah heritage Days’, ‘Sharjah Festival Days’ and ‘Sharjah Spring Promotions’,” SCTDA Chairman said.
Al Noman added, “The half-yearly statistics results put great responsibility on us to work public and private sectors to expand tourism activities that boost the emirate’s economy by enhancing the coordination between different tourism sector players in the emirate.”
Over the past years Sharjah has been witnessing big growth in the number of tourists and hotel guests from the region and worldwide while the emirate is working on developing its tourism establishments, the number of hotels and landmarks it embraces. Every year Sharjah hosts and organizes a number of international family festivals and sports championships, cultural and religious events for different visitors. The emirate participates in international exhibitions to promote the emirates position on the world tourism map.
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