Bloomberg: UAE tourism sector plunges

The slowdown in the United Arab Emirates (UAE)’s tourism industry has pushed the Jumeirah Group LLC hotel chain to lay off hundreds of employees, Bloomberg reported yesterday.

“The government-owned luxury hotel chain, which manages 24 properties in eight countries, recently shed about 500 jobs,” the New York-based agency said.  Jumeirah currently employs 13,500 people.

Dubai’s hospitality industry is one of the emirate’s main economic pillars. According to the US global hotel data provider, STR, Dubai’s hotels’ occupancy has reached its lowest since 2009 during the second quarter of 2019. It added that the average daily rates and revenue available per room “fell to 2003 levels.”

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Bloomberg pointed out that the Dubai-based real estate developers and banks were “reducing staff as the emirate grapples with regional geopolitical tensions, relatively low oil prices and an ongoing real estate and retail slump.”

In a similar context, the local government has introduced measures to stimulate the emirate’s economy, including “lowering certain business fees and issuing longer-term visas.”

Dubai is set to host the global EXPO2020 event next October.