Dubai tourist numbers rise 7.5 pct, beats UNWTO global growth forecast

The number of overnight visitors to Dubai last year rose 7.5 percent to reach 14.2 million, says Dubai's Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (Dubai Tourism), beating the United Nations World Travel Organisation's projected 3-4 percent global travel growth for the same period.

SOURCE COUNTRIES AND REGIONS

For the first time, India was Dubai's leading source market, registering a 26 percent increase to reach 1.6 million tourists.

Traditional strongholds GCC, India, UK and Germany collectively continued to deliver over a third of all tourism traffic.

There were notable dips in numbers from Russia, CIS and Eastern Europe, as well as Australasia. 

GROWTH STRATEGY

Dubai Tourism rolled out its global brand campaign in the last quarter of 2015 and will continue to work on building brand awareness in new markets and addressing perception gaps in existing markets, it said.

According to the authority, tourism-related infrastructure and capacity enhancement investment is expected to gain momentum in 2016 through more segment-specific offerings such as culture and heritage attractions and family-oriented theme parks, in addition to continued focus on enhancing the business environment.

Dubai Tourism Director General Helal Saeed Almarri said, "Infrastructure, accommodation, air connectivity, access and policy enablers continue to be the facilitating levers that ensure Dubai remains price competitive, can deliver exceptional service quality that will not only attract first-time visitors, but ensure that they become Dubai loyalists and advocates longer-term."

He said that the emirate must deliver a threshold 7-8 percent annual growth if it is to meet its target of 20 million visitors per year by 2020.

"Today, the evolution of our product offering is a result of ensuring extremely tight collaboration with the hotel sector and the retail community, as well as the collective contribution of government and public and private enterprises, aimed at going beyond attracting tourists, to capturing the highest value we can from every visitor to Dubai, ensuring that tourism contribution to the economy is further amplified. These partnerships are crucial for us to build on the foundations we have laid, and accelerate the pace of growth in 2016, to ensure that the 2020 Vision is brought to life for Dubai," he said.