Saudi holy city leads MidEast on new hotel construction

The Saudi holy city of Makkah has the most hotel rooms under construction in the Middle East and Africa, according to new data by analysts STR.

STR’s December 2016 Pipeline Report showed that Makkah has 23,060 rooms in 14 projects, ahead of Dubai, which has 20,451 rooms in 69 projects.

The latest figures showed a total of 158,441 rooms in 555 projects under contract in the Middle East and 57,626 rooms in 309 projects under contract in Africa.

Under contract data includes projects in the in construction, final planning and planning stages, STR said in a statement.

The under contract total in the Middle East represents a 7.2 percent increase in rooms compared to December 2015 while in the in construction phase, the Middle East reported 84,519 rooms in 264 hotels, up 4.3 percent on a year-on-year basis.