Dubai Receives 7.9 Million Visitors In 9 Months

Dubai received around 7.9 million visitors in the last nine months, representing a 9.8 per cent year-on-year increase, according to the latest figures from Dubai’s department of tourism and commerce marketing (DTCM).

The rise in visitor numbers had an impact across the tourism industry, in terms of hotel guest numbers, revenues, room occupancy rates and average length of stay.

Hoteliers and hotel apartment operators’ revenues touched Dhs15.33 billion, up 17.1 per cent.

Hotel room occupancy averaged 78.6 per cent in the last nine months, up 3.1 per cent from the same period last year. Hotel apartment occupancy rates also grew steadily to 81 per cent in the last nine months, up 7.3 per cent from 2012.

“A 17.1 per cent increase in revenues for hotels is particularly encouraging, especially given the number of new establishments which have entered the market this year,” said Helal Saeed Almarri, director-general of DTCM.

“This demonstrates that Dubai continues to represent a major opportunity for hotel developers and that we must continue to work to ensure that supply is meeting demand.”

In terms of the source markets, Saudi Arabia registered the highest growth as visitors increased by 31.6 per cent.

Visitors from India continued to grow by 15 per cent and were the second largest source market for Dubai. Guest numbers from Australia and China also grew by 34.9 per cent and 11 per cent respectively.

“The continual increase of guests from both India and China can be attributable both to the increasing propensity for people from these countries to travel overseas and from our focus on growing these high potential markets,” said Almarri, director-general of DTCM.

Dubai’s visitor numbers were released on the sidelines of the World Travel Market in London.