By: Mahmoud Gamal
Dubai – Mubasher: Dubai has become the world’s most preferable destination, leading other global cities in a variety of rankings.
Russians and Chinese tourists topped the emirate’s visitors in 2018, recording a 28% year-on-year increase, according to Dubai’s Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DTCM).
Around 678,000 Russian tourists visited Dubai from January to December, up 27.9% from 530,000 in the prior year.
Meanwhile, the number of Chinese visitors grew 12% year-on-year to 857,000 last year, the DTCM’s data showed.
German visitors to Dubai witness a similar growth to 506,000 in the 12 months to December 2018, while inbound visitors from the United States increased 4% to 656,000 versus 633,000 in 2017.
It is worth noting that Russia now ranks fifth, compared to eighth previously, in the top countries with tourists arriving in Dubai.
Indians take the lead
Tourists coming from India topped Dubai’s inbound tourists with more than 2 million tourists, followed by Saudi Arabia with 1.6 million and the UK with 1.2 million. By the end of 2018, the emirate of Dubai received 15.92 million visitors, marking a slight rise from 15.79 million in 2017.
It is worth noting that, Dubai’s bodies and authorities are continuously working on achieving the emirate’s vision of raising the numbers of inbound visitors to 20 million tourists, while also increasing the number of available hotel rooms to 140,000 by 2020.
A recent report by The Economist projected a rise in a number of Dubai’s economic sectors, including infrastructure, retail, and hotels, as the emirate approaches its widely-anticipated Expo 2020.
First-timers
For the first time, tourists from the Philippines came among the top 10 nationalities visiting the emirate, after reached 387,000 visitors in 2018.
This came on the back of the emirate’s successful marketing campaigns in a number of countries. Dubai also welcomed around 348,000 tourists from France, which advanced by two places and witnessed a 17% year-on-year rise in the number of French citizens visiting the emirate.
Meanwhile, Italian tourists to Dubai grew by 9%, while Nigerians entering Dubai surged 36% to 185,000 visitors, allowing the African nation to become among the top 20 countries in terms of visitors to Dubai.
On the other hand, visitors from Oman and Pakistan declined in 2018.
