Colliers International has upped its full-year hotel occupancy forecast for Egypt in its August report on MENA hotels (pdf), with Cairo, Sharm El Sheikh, and Hurghada all expected to see a jump in occupancy rates over the previous year.

Let’s start with the resorts: Occupancy rates in Hurghada are expected to rise to 51% this year, up 112% y-o-y — a 5-point upgrade over Colliers’ July forecast (pdf) and the only city in Colliers’ list of 25 MENA destinations that will see growth more than double. Colliers maintained its forecast for Sharm El-Sheikh occupancy at 43%, up 88% y-o-y. The optimistic outlook in the two Red Sea resorts may be further buoyed by the wrapping up of Russian health checks at their airports, paving the way for direct flights with Russia to resume next week.

Cairo’s occupancy rates are expected to to reach 49%, up 79% y-o-y, with Colliers upping its projections 5% over its July forecast. Meanwhile, Colliers lowered its projections for Alexandria’s occupancy rate this year to 57% from 58% in last month’s forecast, still a 26% y-o-y bump%.

What about the rest of MENA? Projections remained more or less stable, with expectations for significant growth in hotel occupancy across the region compared with last year — unsurprisingly, given the pandemic’s devastating impact on the industry in 2020. The UAE continues to impress, with rates in four Dubai destinations averaging 68%. Mean rates in Saudi Arabia stood at 45%, led by Riyadh at 57%, while the average for Qatar’s Doha recorded 70%. Expectations remained low for Amman at 33%, while Beirut has seen steady improvement to reach 38%, up from 33% predicted in June.