Tag Archives: business
Kenya: Business as usual in Nakuru
Munene Kilongi, Nairobi, Kenya (25 February 2008) Business in the Nakuru district has returned back to normal after week of violence that caused huge human and material damages, an AfricaNews… Continue reading
Dubai hotel occupancy hit 89.6% in Jan
Occupancy rates across Dubai’s top end hotels reached an average of 89.6 percent in January, according to TRI Hospitality Consulting, representing an increase of 4.2 percentage points compared to a year ago. The HotStats MENA report, which collates occupancy across four and five-star properties, found that average room rates in the glitzy emirate also rose 5 percent to US$359.39. Revenue per Available Room (RevPAR) was up 10.2 percent to US$321.85. January typically sees a rise in the number of guests staying in Dubai’s hotels, TRI said, due to the annual Dubai Shopping Festival, whose retail bargains entices out-of-town visitors to the city. “This mega-event offers a perfect start to the year for the tourism establishments in the city, and helps bridge the gap between the end of year holidays and European winter breaks,” said Peter Goddard, managing director at TRI Hospitality Consulting. The report found that properties in the UAE capital Abu Dhabi were also able to capitalise from the overspill of guests visiting Dubai for the shopping festival, as hotels registered a 10.8 percentage point increase in occupancy to 71.7 percent during January. Despite this, average room rates continued to fall, sliding 10.7 percent during the month to US$167.77. “Despite stronger demand, hotels in the capital have failed to capitalise these events to improve top line performances, simply due to the competition,” Goddard added. Elsewhere in the region, hotels in Kuwait saw a 6.1 percentage point increase in occupancy rates to 58 percent on an upswing in corporate and leisure demand. Popular Egyptian resort Sharm El Sheikh witnessed a strong recovery in demand compared to last year, when the repercussions of the Arab Spring political unrest dampened the number of tourist visitors. In January 2013, occupancy was up 9.3 percentage points to 57.2 percent. Egypt’s capital Cairo saw occupancy improve 5.9 percentage points to 43.7 percent. Continue reading
Strong earthquake kills one in central Taiwan
An earthquake rattled a province in the southern Philippines as people slept, injuring at least nine people, damaging dozens of houses and setting off a landslide that partially blocked a road with boulders, officials said on Sunday. The quake, which had a magnitude of 5.7, struck North Cotabato province and nearby regions late Saturday, causing the injuries, including to children, and damaging more than 30 houses, the approach to a bridge and water supply pipes in two villages, North Cotabato Governor Emmylou Tolentino-Mendoza said. It damaged a school in the hilly village of Kimadzil where many residents remained jittery because of continuing aftershocks, said Mendoza, who added she scrambled out of her home like other villagers when the ground started to shake and objects fell off from shelves. “It’s a big relief that no motorist was passing through our highway when boulders rolled down from the mountainside,” she said. The Philippine archipelago is located in the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” where earthquakes and volcanic activity are common. A magnitude-7.7 quake killed nearly 2,000 people on the northern island of Luzon in 1990. Continue reading
