At the conclusion of 2008, there were 341 graded hotels and 152 hotel apartments, accounting for 37,261 rooms and 13,196 apartment units. Roughly 5,000 hotel rooms came online in 2008.

During 2008, the market saw its first decrease in occupancy levels in years. Due in large part to the new supply, occupancy dropped 5% to 79%. Still during 2008, average room rates and room yield continued to increase by 11.9% and 3.8% respectively. The 2009 numbers, which are still being crunched, are likely to show a significant decline thanks to the global economic woes. According to JLL, revenue per available room probably declined 30% during the year.

Still despite declining RevPAR, in 2009 Dubai welcomed more than 7.4 million people. The country hopes to increase that figure to 10 million in 2010. According to a 2007 report by the Dubai Statistics Centre, tourism accounts for more than 3% of the country's gross domestic product. And in 2009 alone more than 7.4 million people visited the country. Landmarks and real estate novelties like the Burj Al Arab Hotel, the tallest hotel in the world; the Burj Dubai tower, the tallest tower in the world; the Dubai Mall, the largest mall globally; and the Palm Islands including Palm Jumeirah; help attract visitors.

Europe accounts for the largest portion of the tourism market at 28% of guest nights. The UK and Germany bring the most visitors. Asia comes in at a close second with 23%, this is due in part to a large marketing campaign Dubai has launched in Japan to attract visitors.

As evident by the financial trouble of the government's development arm, Nakheel, Dubai has not been immune to the economic woes hitting the rest of the world. While more than 5,000 hotel rooms are expected to enter the market this year, that number of likely to taper off dramatically in the years to follow. From previous figures, the number of new rooms is expected to decrease by 60%. Between 30% and 40% of proposed projects have been shelved and there have been no significant new project announcements.

Still JLL expects hotel occupancy to remain fairly level between 70% and 75% during the next three years, as occupancy will increase at about the level that new supply is delivered. Average room rates and room yield, on the other hand, are likely to drop during 2010 before stabilizing in 2011.