A total of 541 hotels (152,580 rooms) are in the pipeline in the Middle East, a new report has unveiled.

STR’s April 2016 Pipeline Report said ‘under contract’ includes projects in the construction, final planning and planning stages, but does not include projects in the unconfirmed stage.

The ‘under contract’ total in the Middle East subcontinent represents a 41.3 per cent increase in rooms under contract compared with April 2015 and a 40.9 per cent year-over-year increase in rooms under construction. The Middle East reported 80,933 rooms in 251 hotels under construction for the month.

Among the key markets in the Middle East and Africa, Makkah, Saudi Arabia, reported the largest number of rooms under construction with 20,790 rooms in 11 hotels.