Dubai welcomes over 12 million tourists in the first nine months of 2019

Dubai received a staggering 12.08 million international visitors in the first nine months of 2019, according to Dubai’s department of tourism & commerce marketing (Dubai Tourism).

The emirate recorded a 4.3 per cent increase in visitor figures compared to the same period last year, a statement said.

India remained the emirate’s top market for inbound tourism, with over 1.39 million visitors during the first nine months of the year, 45 per cent of whom were Indian families with children.

Read: Indian actor Shah Rukh Khan again features in Dubai Tourism ad campaign

Saudi Arabia remained Dubai’s top source market from the GCC with over 1.25 million visitors, and the second largest market worldwide, while the UK proved to be Dubai’s third largest inbound tourism market with 851,000 visitors.

Oman and China delivered 778,000 and 729,000 tourists respectively, in the first nine months of the year, the statement added.

Dubai drew in over 1.23 million visitors in September, an increase of 7.3 per cent over the same month last year.

Earlier this year, Dubai was ranked the fourth most visited city worldwide in MasterCard’s 2019 Global Destination Cities Index. The emirate was also the only GCC destination to feature in the top 10 cities to visit in 2020 by global travel guide company, Lonely Planet.

Read: Dubai listed among top 10 cities to visit in 2020 by Lonely Planet

Helal Saeed Almarri, director general, Dubai Tourism, said: “Our market-specific diversified strategy aimed at driving consideration from a broad spectrum of countries and visitor segments, continues to help us successfully navigate macro-economic vagaries over a nine-month period, culminating in a record number of visitors between January-September, particularly those choosing Dubai as their summer destination of choice.”

“The ongoing consolidation in traditional strongholds and a concerted outreach in tapping the vast potential in emerging markets, yielded further dividends especially at a regional-level across Europe and GCC, in addition to the very encouraging performances from our Asian and African markets,” Almarri added.

Dubai Tourism has launched destination-specific campaigns and strategic activations across global markets through bespoke programmes and partnerships, the statement said.