Dubai’s Hotels Welcome Over 5.8m Tourists In The First Half Of 2014

Dubai’s hotels welcomed more than 5.8 million tourists in the first half of 2014, up around one per cent compared to the same period last year, according to stats released by Dubai’s Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DTCM).

Hoteliers and hotel apartment operators saw total first half revenues reach Dhs12.74 billion ($3.18 billion), an increase of 10.9 per cent year-on-year.

Total guest nights also rose, with figures up by 6.7 per cent for hotels and 4.1 per cent for hotel apartments. Average length of stay reached 3.4 days in hotels and 5.7 days in hotel apartments during the first six months of the year.

Dubai currently has 88,680 hotel rooms across 634 establishments, including 7,000 rooms that were added in the last 12 months, the statement from DTCM said.

Helal Saeed Almarri, director-general of DTCM said: “Dubai’s hotel offering is continuing to grow and diversify allowing us to both meet the demand from travellers as well as broaden the market we promote Dubai to.”

The emirate’s top 10 tourism source markets remained mostly unchanged compared to the previous year and included Saudi Arabia, India, UK, USA, Russia, China, Iran, Oman, Kuwait and Germany.

Visitors from China in particular rose by 26 per cent, attributable to the “increasing propensity of Chinese residents to travel overseas and the targeted campaigns of DTCM and its partners,” the statement said.

Over 14,500 Chinese delegates from Nu Skin also visited Dubai for an incentive trip in April, representing the largest corporate holiday ever held in the UAE.

“The figures show an increase in visitors from many of our key source markets – for example we are seeing strong growth from China, Brazil, Australia and many countries in Europe. The increase comes despite the reduction in flights due to the refurbishment and upgrading of the runways at Dubai International,” said Almarri.

“Our strategy continues to be positioning Dubai as the must-experience family destination: as such we are constantly diversifying our tourism offering and increasing our hotel portfolio to attract, and cater to, a broader market of visitors.”

The figures are in line with Dubai’s bold Vision 2020, as part of which it plans to attract 20 million tourists per year by 2020, Almarri added.

“We’re on target for our medium-term plans. More importantly, this growth is sustainable and we are moving in the right direction to reach our Tourism Vision for 2020 targets.”