Dubai: Over 10 million visit city in 9 months; Indians on top of tourist list

Dubai welcomed more than 10 million international visitors in the first nine months of the year at almost three-fold increase with about 10 per cent inflow coming from India, according to official data.

Dubai received 10.12 million visitors compared to 3.85 million visitors during the same period of last year signifying a growth of 162.8 per cent, as per the statistics released by the Department of Economy and Tourism Dubai.

Also, the total number of international visitors in 2019, i.e. pre-pandemic, was 12.08 million, which reflects the strong rebound made by Dubai’s tourism sector.

Also, in August and September more than 2 million visitors flocked to Dubai, which further shows that momentum gained during Expo 2020 Dubai has been sustained so far.

In the past nine months, the GCC (23 per cent) was the top source region, followed by western Europe (20 per cent), south Asia (17 per cent), Mena (12 per cent), Russia, the Commonwealth of Independent States and the Eastern Europe (11 per cent), Americas (7 per cent), Africa (6 per cent), north Asia and south-east Asia (4 per cent) and Australasia (1 per cent).

Among the top countries, India led with 1.24 million, followed by Oman (1.05 million), Saudi Arabia (907,000), the UK (720,000), Russia (454,000), the US (391,000), Pakistan (279,000), France (269,000), Germany (268,000) and Iran (247,000).

More number of Omanis and Russians have been touring Dubai compared to 2019, when it was 778,000 and 433,000 respectively. The biggest year-on-year surge in tourist numbers has been from Oman at 715 per cent.

Also, the flow from India, France and Iran have all been closer to the pre-pandemic levels.

There are further indicators to suggest a robust recovery made by the tourism sector, including the number of hotel rooms, bookings and duration of stay.

The supply of available rooms in Dubai reached 142,782 at 19 per cent rise compared to 2019 and 7 per cent more than 2021. There are 784 establishments, which is 9 per cent higher than 2019 and 8 per cent more than 2021 level.

Average occupancy at hotels is 70.8 per cent compared to 61.6 per cent in 2021 and 73.4 per cent in 2019. Also, guests have been staying longer this year (4 nights) compared to 3.4 nights in 2019 but lower than last year (4.6 nights).

Overall numbers are expected to surge further with the Global Village season, Expo City Dubai, other major international events and the Fifa World Cup.

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