Dubai welcomes 16.73 million tourists in 2019

Dubai received a staggering 16.73 million international overnight visitors in 2019, according to Dubai’s Department of Tourism & Commerce Marketing (Dubai Tourism).

The emirate recorded a 5.1 per cent increase in tourism volumes, a statement said.

India remained the emirate’s top market for inbound tourism, drawing nearly two million visitors.

Saudi Arabia remained Dubai’s top source market from the GCC with 1.6 million visitors, and the second largest market worldwide, while the UK proved to be Dubai’s third largest inbound tourism market with 1.2 million visitors.

Oman and China delivered a million and 989,000 visitors respectively, in 2019, the statement said.

Dubai also ranked the third largest city in securing direct international tourism spending with a total of $27.9bn, according to the 2019 World Travel & Tourism Council’s Cities report.

The emirate was also the world’s fourth most visited city for the fifth consecutive year by MasterCard’s 2019 Global Destination Cities Index. 

“The strong performances across our diversified spectrum of traditional strongholds and fast-growing high value segments have continued to solidify the global competitiveness and sustained resilience of Dubai’s tourism sector,” said Helal Saeed Almarri, director general, Dubai Tourism.

“While the global economy remains in a state of flux, we can clearly see an exciting opportunity to further grow Dubai’s dominance in the tourism industry in 2020, and to pioneer the next decade for global travel, offering unique and transformative tourism experiences created and driven by our strong appetite for radical innovation and stakeholder collaboration.”

Earlier this month, the UAE had announced plans to issue five-year, multi-entry tourist visas for all nationalities visiting the country. The move is expected to be implemented in the first quarter of 2020.

Read: UAE to issue multiple-entry five-year visas for tourists, offers visa waiver for Mexicans

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