About 450 classified hotels worth 500 million US-Dollar (per year) displays the strong financial power, especially of investors from Saudi Arabia, who invest into the Mecca location. And the construction further goes on: according to?TOPHOTELPROJECTS another 16 new hotels are in the pipeline.
The US company Starwood invests into three new properties.? The Westin Makkah (512 rooms) will be inaugurated in mid-2015. Likewise the Sheraton Makkah (532 rooms) will open its doors. Furthermore in that time a Four Points by Sheraton Hotel with 451 rooms is expected to open.
Hyatt wants to open three new hotels early next year with a total of more than 1,000 rooms. Marriott prepares the inauguration of a JW Marriott Hotel with 638 rooms and of a Courtyard by Marriott Hotels (432 rooms) for summer 2015.
With more than 61,000 existing hotel rooms Mecca is the largest hotel market in Saudi Arabia by far. In comparison: the capital of the Kingdom Riyadh just offers 10,000 rooms and Medina only 7,800 rooms. Hotel market professionals expect an increase of about 13,000 hotel rooms (+18%) within the next three years.
The goal of the hadj, which every Muslim should do once in his lifetime, recently underwent a hotel construction boom second to none in the past years. The number of top hotels has increased by 172 percent.
Every year about 25 million pilgrims and other visitors travel to Mecca and carter for a tourism revenue of approximately eight billion US Dollar. Every guest stays 5,1 nights in average. The overnight stays market increase every year by six percent. The average occupancy of the hotels increase every year by approx. 10 percent, the average daily rate grows by 11,8 percent and the Revpar (revenue per available room) increased by 23,8 percent.