The Middle East and Africa (MEA) hospitality market is witnessing robust growth with a total of 864 hotel projects under construction in the region, said a report.

Of this, about 555 projects comprising 158,441 rooms are under contract in the Middle East region, stated STR, a leading provider of global hotel data, in its November 2016 Pipeline Report.

The under-contract data includes projects in the in-construction, final planning and planning stages but does not include projects in the unconfirmed stage.

Among the MEA countries, Saudi Arabia has the highest number of rooms (23,060 rooms in 14 projects), in the in-construction stage followed by the UAE with 20,451 rooms in 69 projects.

The under contract total in the Middle East represents a 7.2 per cent increase in rooms under contract compared with December 2015. Specifically in the in construction phase, the Middle East reported 84,519 rooms in 264 hotels, up 4.3 per cent year-over-year.

On the total 309 projects (57,626 rooms) under contract in Africa region, the STR report said it represented a 5.1 per cent increase in rooms compared to December 2015.

Specifically in the in construction phase, Africa reported 29,546 rooms in 160 hotels. Based on number of rooms, that is a 6.3 per cent increase in year-over-year comparisons. - TradeArabia News Service