After years of building new hotels at a record speed, Dubai is starting to pay the price for overcapacity. Hotel prices in this desert state have already dropped more than 25%.
The average price for a room used to be $305, and in just one month, it dropped to $230. This means that tourists coming to Dubai for a week can save over $500.
Of course, this all has to to do with more than a bit of hotel overcapacity. The recent news about the financial situation of Dubai is helping people consider the destination for their next vacation.
A similar thing happened when Iceland stood on the edge of total financial meltdown. Bad news for one country, means great bargains for others. Unless of course that country is the United States, in which case the government comes up with new and improved ways to scare tourists away.
The Dubai numbers come from the UK division of Hotels.com where they noticed a massive increase in search requests for Dubai hotels. Since Dubai released their doom and gloom financial news, searches for Dubai hotels increased by 570%.
Dubai always wanted to make its money from tourism (it doesn’t have much oil), so perhaps by turning into a budget destination, they’ll finally have their wish granted.