In March 2025, hotels across the Middle East and Africa region experienced mixed performance impacted by the month-long observance of Ramadan, which took place almost exclusively in March compared to last year when the observance began in the middle of the month.
The Holy Month is the slowest part of the year for most of the Middle East and other nearby hotel markets popular with Muslim visitors. Travel comes to a near-halt as the pace of life slows and shifts to accommodate participants’ fasts.
On the flip side, Ramadan’s shift on the calendar pushed the Holy Month further into overlap with the region’s high season. Markets with a larger international or leisure demand base tend to maintain occupancy a bit better as non-Muslims may still choose to travel to those destinations.
The majority of MEA countries (eight of the 12 largest countries based on room supply) posted RevPAR declines in March, with occupancy playing a larger role than rate in driving the decrease. One notable exception was Saudi Arabia, which posted the greatest gains across the region, impacted by strong performance in Makkah and Medina, which are visited by pilgrims during Ramadan to complete Umrah.
Other major Middle East countries down in part due to Ramadan calendar shift
Oman RevPAR strengthened slightly, lifted by gains in Muscat (+2.6%). However, RevPAR declines were common across the rest of the major Middle East countries, impacted by the slowdown during Ramadan. The United Arab Emirates’ largest market, Dubai, posted a double-digit RevPAR decline because of Ramadan as well as the shift of the annual Dubai World Cup horse race from March last year to April this year.
The other major UAE city, Abu Dhabi, saw RevPAR decrease 2.6%.
The next four countries with declines were Qatar (-14.1%), with RevPAR retreating across all Doha markets; Kuwait (-23.1%), impacted by drops in Kuwait City; Jordan (-17.7%), driven by decreases in Amman (-21.4%); and Bahrain (-41.0%), with the city of Manama posting significant drops in ADR and occupancy.
Egypt’s resort markets and South Africa improved while much of Africa slowed
Egypt recorded the second highest increase across MEA countries, with all five markets in the region advancing primarily due to the significant RevPAR lift in its two largest markets, Sharm El Sheikh (+41.2%) and the Hurghada area (+34.7%), both located in popular leisure destinations along the Red Sea.
South Africa saw the third strongest performance with RevPAR advancing 9.1%, with the Gauteng market, which includes Johannesburg and Pretoria, driving the gain.
Egypt and South Africa played a major role in lifting Africa performance as a whole. Excluding these two countries, the region saw a 6.0% decrease in RevPAR, following two months of healthy gains (+9.2% in February and +8.0% in January).
Two of the next largest markets in the region in terms of hotel supply, Morocco and Tunisia, reflected this pattern with both countries seeing RevPAR slowdowns in March of -11.2% and -23.7%, respectively, following strong gains in the first two months of the year. In Morocco, Marrakech and Casablanca saw small declines, but the majority of the slowdown took place outside these major cities. Tunisia performance was down across the country. Kenya also posted an 18.0% decline in RevPAR, impacted by weak performance in Nairobi. Unlike the two countries above, Kenya also experienced declines in January and February. While growing lodging supply and improving infrastructure are helping to drive hotel demand throughout Africa, political unrest and travel warnings continue as headwinds throughout the continent.
About CoStar Group, Inc.
CoStar Group (NASDAQ: CSGP) is a leading provider of online real estate marketplaces, information, and analytics in the property markets. Founded in 1987, CoStar Group conducts expansive, ongoing research to produce and maintain the largest and most comprehensive database of real estate information. CoStar is the global leader in commercial real estate information, analytics, and news, enabling clients to analyze, interpret and gain unmatched insight on property values, market conditions and availabilities. Apartments.com is the leading online marketplace for renters seeking great apartment homes, providing property managers and owners a proven platform for marketing their properties. LoopNet is the most heavily trafficked online commercial real estate marketplace with thirteen million average monthly global unique visitors. STR provides premium data benchmarking, analytics, and marketplace insights for the global hospitality industry. Ten-X offers a leading platform for conducting commercial real estate online auctions and negotiated bids. Homes.com is the fastest growing online residential marketplace that connects agents, buyers, and sellers. OnTheMarket is a leading residential property portal in the United Kingdom. BureauxLocaux is one of the largest specialized property portals for buying and leasing commercial real estate in France. Business Immo is France’s leading commercial real estate news service. Thomas Daily is Germany’s largest online data pool in the real estate industry. Belbex is the premier source of commercial space available to let and for sale in Spain. CoStar Group’s websites attracted over 163 million average monthly unique visitors in the third quarter of 2024. Headquartered in Washington, DC, CoStar Group maintains offices throughout the U.S., Europe, Canada, and Asia. From time to time, we plan to utilize our corporate website, CoStarGroup.com, as a channel of distribution for material company information. For more information, visit CoStarGroup.com.
This news release includes “forward-looking statements” including, without limitation, statements regarding CoStar’s expectations or beliefs regarding the future. These statements are based upon current beliefs and are subject to many risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from these statements. The following factors, among others, could cause or contribute to such differences: the risk that future media events will not sustain an increase in future occupancy rates. More information about potential factors that could cause results to differ materially from those anticipated in the forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, those stated in CoStar’s filings from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including in CoStar’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2023 and Forms 10-Q for the quarterly periods ended March 31, 2024, June 30, 2024, and September 30, 2023, each of which is filed with the SEC, including in the “Risk Factors” section of those filings, as well as CoStar’s other filings with the SEC available at the SEC’s website (www.sec.gov). All forward-looking statements are based on information available to CoStar on the date hereof, and CoStar assumes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
