Dubai welcomes 11.4 million international overnight visitors between Jan-Oct 2022

Dubai welcomed 11.4 million international overnight visitors between January and October 2022, increasing 134 per cent year-on-year, a Department of Economy and Tourism (DET) report has revealed.

DET announced the launch of the annual Dubai Tourism Summit, to lay the foundation for a thought leadership programme to boost the city’s tourism industry. It also shared the latest tourism report for the first 10 months of 2022.

#Dubai welcomes 11.4 million international visitors during first ten months of 2022,up 134% YoY, taking a step closer to its target of becoming world’s most visited destination. Hotels in Dubai record an average 71% occupancy in the first 10 months,one of the highest in the world pic.twitter.com/KXdGhFoIas

— Dubai Media Office (@DXBMediaOffice) December 15, 2022

The 11.4 million visitors who arrived in Dubai during the first 10 months of the year represented a leap over the 4.88 million guests that visited the city during an year-earlier period. Visitor figures were closed to the pre-pandemic ones of 13.50 million international visitors in the first 10 months of 2019.

The emirate was also found popular among global travellers, with 54 million monthly online searches for Dubai recorded during the third quarter of 2022, close to pre-pandemic levels.

Meanwhile, average hotel occupancy in Dubai between January-October 2022 stood at 71 per cent, rising over the 64 per cent posted in the corresponding period of last year and just short of the 74 per cent during the pre-pandemic period of 2019.

The emirate’s occupancy continues to closely trail cities such as Istanbul (75 per cent), New York (74 per cent), Paris (73 per cent), London (73 per cent) and Los Angeles (72 per cent).

Dubai’s hotel inventory in October 2022 comprised 144,737 rooms at 790 establishments compared with 122,185 rooms available at the end of October 2019 across 724 establishments. The total number of hotels in the first 10 months of 2022 saw an 8 per cent growth over the same period in 2021.

Dubai hotel establishments delivered a combined 30.40 million occupied room nights during the first 10 months of the year, marking a 23 per cent YTD growth and a 17 per cent increase over the corresponding pre-pandemic period of 2019, which yielded 26.01 million occupied room nights.

The average daily rate (ADR) of Dhs506 during January-October this year surpassed its peers for the first ten months of 2021 (Dhs384) and 2019 (Dhs400). Dubai hotels recorded a 48 per cent increase in revenue per available room (RevPAR) in YTD October 2022 vs YTD October 2021 (Dhs362 vs Dhs245).

.@DubaiDET announces the launch of the annual Dubai Tourism Summit, reinforcing Dubai’s status as a global tourism leader. The announcement was made during bi-annual ‘City Briefing’ event held during the Skift Global Forum East in presence of more than 1,000 executives. pic.twitter.com/J31uLjTMYh

— Dubai Media Office (@DXBMediaOffice) December 15, 2022

“Dubai has always been an international icon of innovation and excellence. The Dubai Tourism Summit will see us working even more closely with our domestic and global stakeholders and partners as we focus on pushing the boundaries further to highlight Dubai’s position as the top international destination and the best city in the world to live in, work and invest,” said Helal Saeed Al Marri, DET’s director general, who presided over the DET’s ‘City Briefing’ and which was attended by more than 1,000 executives from across the tourism ecosystem.

“Our performance in the first ten months of 2022 indicates that we are on target to achieving our tourism goals, which dovetail with the UAE Tourism Strategy 2031. It is also a testament to our city’s resilience, robust and diversified market strategy, solid collaboration model between the government and private sectors, and the strength of the city’s diverse destination proposition.”

Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai launched a tourism strategy last month to strengthen the country’s status as a tourism hotspot.

Read: Sheikh Mohammed launches national tourism strategy to boost competitiveness

The UAE Tourism Strategy 2031 comes under the ‘Projects of the 50’, and aims to raise the tourism sector’s contribution to GDP to Dhs450bn in 2031, with an annual increase of Dhs27bn.