The Middle East Hotel Construction Pipeline Trend Report, Q2 2025 Lodging Econometrics (LE), reveals that as of the second quarter of 2016, the hotel construction pipeline reached a new record of 650 project with 161,574 bedrooms. The pipeline was up 10% in terms of rooms and 7% on projects at the end of the third quarter.
The number of hotel projects under construction in the Middle East is 337. This represents 86,447 guest rooms. Rooms are up 7% and projects by 12% YOY. In the next 12 month, 147 projects will be starting construction, which is an increase of 31% for rooms. Early planning projects are 166 projects/29.670 rooms. This is an increase of 2 percent by projects.
In Q1, new project announcements totaled 48 projects/10 567 rooms. Meanwhile, construction projects started 32 projects/8 587 rooms. These numbers represent a growth of 23% in terms of projects and 38% for rooms. In Q1, combined hotel renovations, brand conversions, and new construction reached record numbers, with 67 projects/14 768 rooms.
The luxury scale had a record-breaking 196 projects/43942 rooms. Meanwhile, the upper-upscale scale also achieved a record-breaking 150 projects/38.357 rooms. These two top chain scales together account for 55% and 56% respectively of the projects in the pipeline.
Saudi Arabia is the Middle Eastern country with the highest number of projects. It has 342 projects with 92,187 bedrooms. Egypt comes in second with 127 rooms and a total of 28,172. The United Arab Emirates are next with 100 projects/25.470 rooms. Oman has 27 projects/4.709 rooms. Qatar has 16 projects/3.473 rooms.
The Middle East cities with the biggest pipelines include Riyadh in Saudi Arabia with 88 projects/18.152 rooms, Jeddah in Saudi Arabia with 56 projects/12.627 rooms, Dubai, UAE with 53 projects/13.726 rooms, Cairo, Egypt with 48 projects/10.715 rooms, and Makkah in Saudi Arabia with 29 projects/18.323 rooms.
Middle East opened fourteen new hotels (4,327 rooms) in the first half. LE forecasts an additional 89 hotels/19,269 room openings throughout the rest of the calendar year. This will bring the total to 103 hotels/23.596 rooms by the end of 2025. By the end of 2026, LE analysts predict 94 new Middle East hotels will open with 19,019 rooms. Another 91 hotels with 22,631 rooms are forecast for 2027.
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