A Lost Year for Gulf Tourism

Skift Take Rooms are filling at half-price, not at pre-war demand — that’s hurting big brands and independents alike, but only one side has the balance sheet to outlast it. J.S. Anand runs Leva Hotels, a mid-sized hospitality group with properties across Dubai, Jeddah, Austria and Tanzania. This time last year, business was strong enough that a month-long stay at his Leva Hotel in Dubai went for AED6,500 ($1,769). Now that same room is going for AED3,000 ($816) — a discount of more than 50%, and one of the only ways he can keep it occupied. Over the past three months, Leva Hotels has absorbed AED5 million ($1.4 million) in cancellations. The company pays AED800,000 ($217,835) a month in rent on a leased building, with no relief from its landlord. Fee deferrals from the government, he said, don't even cover 10% of what the business needs right now. "It's more or less a lost year," Anand told Skift. "There's no such thing as resilience in a market which is not picking up. As an operator, it's all about survival." Anand's numbers are one operator's story. But they capture something larger: the collapse of Gulf hospit