Dubai's Burj Al Arab Hotel - billed as the first seven-star hotel in the world - has escaped a room-discounting move by owners, the Jumeirah Group, to shore up demand during the global downturn.

As a result, occupancy in the imposing 321-metre-high building is 'less than last year but within our expectations,' Jumeirah chief executive Gerald Lawless said on the sidelines of a world tourism conference in Brazil.

He said for the rest of Jumeirah's properties, steep price cuts were being offered to maintain demand, according to a report in our sister newspaper Gulf Daily News.

'At the end of November, bookings were slowing down, so we started offering healthy discounts up to 30 per cent for our source markets in the UK, Germany and Russia to stimulate demand,' he said.

Despite the crisis, the group was maintaining client numbers from those three key markets, he said, though he noted that reservations were increasingly coming later in a bid to secure cheaper prices.

He said: 'The luxury sector is certainly resilient to the crisis but this is also motivated by promotions and prices.'