'Shutdown': Moody's expects Dubai hotel occupancy to plummet to 10 percent

'Shutdown': Moody's expects Dubai hotel occupancy to plummet to 10 percent Submitted by MEE staff on Thu, 05/07/2026 - 15:55 The UAE's tourism sector has been in crisis since the US-Israeli war on Iran began on 28 February Emirati army helicopters fly past the hotel, Atlantis The Royal, in Dubai, UAE, on 16 January 2026 (Fadel Senna/AFP) Off The US-based financial analysis firm Moody's predicts that hotel occupancy in Dubai is set to plummet to 10 percent from a pre-war figure of 80 percent in the second quarter of the year, which ends on 1 July, The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday. "This represents an effective shutdown of large parts of the hospitality sector," Moody’s said. Dubai is facing an existential crisis with the US-Israeli war on Iran, which began on 28 February, forcing visitor numbers to fall sharply and leading to widespread hotel closures and job losses while decimating the global tourism hotspot's hospitality sector.