Dubai welcomed 4.1 million tourists in Q1

Dubai saw a 5.1 per cent jump year-on-year in tourist visits during the first quarter of 2016, with the emirate welcoming 4.1 million overnight travellers, according to official figures.

The data, released by Dubai’s Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (Dubai Tourism), showed strong double digit growth from the city’s top two proximity markets, the GCC and India, with the GCC delivering 25 per cent of all overnight visits in Q1.

Visitors from Saudi Arabia grew 14 per cent to 476,000 in the first three months of the year, making it the leading source country. Tourists from Oman increased by 32 per cent over 2015’s figures, with 322,000 people arriving in Dubai.

India’s numbers grew 17 per cent, delivering 467,000, while Pakistan’s visitor numbers grew by 18 per cent.

Western Europe was the second largest source region for visitors with a 23 per cent share overall, led by 10 per cent growth from the United Kingdom which contributed 334,000 visitors.

Director general of Dubai Tourism, Helal Saeed Almarri, said: “Global travel in the first three months of this year has been impacted by geopolitical, social and economic uncertainties, with most markets experiencing flat to negative growth. I see Dubai’s highly agile, fragmented source market approach, the strength of our government, public and private sector partnerships, as well as our effective promotional and marketing outreach, as having been fundamental to fuelling overall growth.

“Markets within the four hour flight path, specifically the GCC and India, remain a critical focus for our on-going visitation attraction efforts as build towards our growth targets.”