Dubai Occupancy Rates Drop

DUBAI ~ Hotel occupancy rates in Dubai dropped to 79 percent in 2008, the lowest level since 2004, with a decline in demand from Europe due to the financial crisis, a consultancy firm said this week.

Hotel occupancy last year was five percent lower than in 2007, which saw rates soar to 84 percent, Jones Lang LaSalle said in a report.

Dubai has embarked on extensive construction projects, boasting three palm-shaped islands off its coast as well as what is tagged as the world’s tallest tower and the seven-star sail-shaped Burj Al-Arab hotel.

Tourist Dead in Singapore Hotel

SINGAPORE ~ A foreign tourist was found dead with a stab wound at a luxury hotel in Singapore on Monday, local police said.

Hotel staff discovered the body of an “Asian male in his 60s” in his bathroom at the Ritz-Carlton Millenia Singapore on Monday morning with “a stab wound on his chest,” a police spokesman said.

The spokesman could not immediately verify the identity and nationality of the tourist but said it was being classified as an “unnatural death” – a term often used in Singapore for possible murder cases.