Dubai named world’s best destination by Tripadvisor, yet again

Online travel booking giant, Tripadvisor, says its community users have ranked Dubai, yet again, as the world’s top travel destination.

Dubai came out tops in the 2024 Travelers’ Choice Awards Best of the Best winners for a third year in a row in the top destinations category. Tripadvisor says that “winners in this category are destinations whose hotels, restaurants and things to do received a high volume of above-and-beyond reviews and opinions from our community over a 12-month period”.

“Fewer than 1 per cent of Tripadvisor’s 8 million listings are awarded Best of the Best, signifying the highest level of excellence in travel,” says Tripadvisor.

Dubai is followed by Bali, London, Hanoi, Rome, Paris and Cancun in the list of best destinations.

Dubai’s traveller statistics

Data from Dubai’s statistics centre has indicated that 12.4 million travellers came to the emirate in the third quarter of 2023. The statistics centre defines international visitors as those who spend one night at least in Dubai, including air, land and sea visitors. The data excludes United Arab Emirates residents, local Emiratis as well as aircrews and marines.

The top four countries where visitors came from for this period were India (1,772,000 visitors), Saudi Arabia (856,000), the UK (825,000) and Russia (806,000).

In the first half 2023, Dubai welcomed 8.55 million international overnight visitors, elevating it beyond pre-pandemic levels in 2019 when it saw 8.36 million tourists in the first half of that year.

READ MORE: Dubai surpasses pre-pandemic international tourism levels in H1 2023