Sharjah Commerce and Tourism Development Authority (SCTDA) recently issued detailed statistics for the emirate's tourism sector performance for the first half of the year ending June 30, 2009. According to the statistics, the total number of guests in the emirate's hotels and hotel apartments was 671,662, with overall occupancy calculated at 64 percent. The total number of hotels and hotel apartments in Sharjah was up seven percent to 109 (41 hotels and 68 hotel apartments), compared to the figure of 102 (37 hotels and 65 hotel apartments) during the same period in 2008. The increase in the number of hotels and hotel apartments raised the number of available rooms to 8,523, a 14 percent increase from the 7,486 rooms recorded in the corresponding period in 2008, with the number of hotel rooms increasing from 3,913 to 4,275 and the number of hotel apartment rooms increasing from 3,573 to 4,248. Figures also show that a total of 671,662 guests stayed in the emirate's hotel facilities in the first half of 2009 – 359,151 guests in hotels, and 312,511 guests in hotel apartments. The total number of occupied room nights for H1 2009 was 728,475 – 393,796 for hotels, and 334,679 for hotel apartments. Other statistics issued by SCTDA show that European tourists accounted for 32 percent of all tourists visiting the emirate in the first half of 2009, while GCC tourists accounted for 28 percent, and tourists from other Arab countries accounted for 14 percent. Asian tourists made up 20 percent of total visitors, while American, Canadian, Australian, New Zealand, African and Pacific tourists made up the remaining 6 percent. Mohamed A. Al Noman, SCTDA director general, said that the statistics showed the vibrancy and resilience of Sharjah's tourism sector, and its ability to attract increasing numbers of tourists from all over the world despite the current challenging market conditions, which reached their peak in the first half of 2009 with the spread of the H1N1 (swine flu) virus. “In the meantime,” Al Noman added, “SCTDA is working according to a clear strategy to develop Sharjah's tourism sector by targeting international markets and organizing events and activities that promote the emirate, such as tourism fairs, trade fairs and promotional tours.
