Analysis by Chris Klauda
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.
