Heralding its arrival as a tourism competitor for Dubai, Abu Dhabi saw a leap of 27 percent in hotel guests in November compared to the same month in 2009, with guest nights surging 42 percent to mark the emirate’s second highest performing month of the year.
The surge brought the emirate to 1,646,799 guests total for the first 11 months of the year, close to its goal of 1.65mn for all of 2010.
The Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority reported that 169,001 guests stayed in the emirate last month, with guest nights at 544,753.
Occupancy levels were also up 18 percent, to 77 percent, and the average length of stay climbed to 3.2 nights per person from 2.9, largely off the back of events like the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix and Yas Island’s popular concert nights, which attract thousands with expat-friendly acts like the Jonas Brothers and Guns n’ Roses, as well as Etihad’s expansion.