The Middle East’s pipeline is down seven percent by projects and six percent by rooms year-over-year (YOY).  This is the fourth consecutive quarter the pipeline has declined since reaching its cyclical peak by projects in Q2 2019.   

However, projects currently under construction stand at an all-time high of 363 projects/117,458 rooms. Projects scheduled to start construction in the next 12 months are down an outstanding 31 percent by projects and 34 percent by rooms YOY to end the second quarter at 109 projects/25,658 rooms. Projects in the early planning stage are at 119 projects/26,422 rooms. Additionally, in the second quarter, the Middle East opened only seven new hotels accounting for 1,469 rooms.

Countries with the most projects in the construction pipeline are Saudi Arabia with 210 projects/69,610 rooms and the UAE with 186 projects/55,797 rooms.  Following distantly is Egypt with a record 60 projects/14,641 rooms, then Qatar with 57 projects and an all-time high room count of 14,538, and Oman with 36 projects/6,967 rooms. Dubai continues to lead the construction pipeline in the UAE with 144 projects/44,895 rooms.

Cities with the largest hotel construction pipelines are the Provincial region with 67 projects/14,104 rooms; Riyadh, at record high totals, with 62 projects/12,414 rooms; Doha, Qatar with 50 projects/12,234 rooms; Jeddah with 50 projects/10,705 rooms; and Makkah with 31 projects/32,387 rooms. 44 percent of the projects in the construction pipeline In the Middle East are found within these five cities.