Dubai’s tourism industry closed a successful decade at the end of 2019, welcoming an all-time high 16.73 million international overnight visitors, a 5.1 percent increase in tourism volumes, definitively surpassing the global tourism growth forecast by the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) by over 1 percent.
With momentum firmly tracking against Dubai’s Tourism Vision 2022-25, latest data released by Dubai’s Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (Dubai Tourism) reflects the sector’s exponential progress in a compressed time frame relative to peers, culminating in Dubai being ranked the World’s Fourth Most Visited City for the fifth consecutive year by MasterCard’s Global Destination Cities Index 2019. Contributing 11.5 percent in GDP value, Dubai’s tourism sector was ranked one of the top 10 strongest economic share generators, according to the World Travel and Tourism Council’s Cities Report 2019. The report also ranked Dubai the third largest city in capturing direct international tourism spending with a total of $27.9 billion.
Helal Saeed Almarri, director general, Dubai Tourism, said: “The strong performances across our diversified spectrum of traditional strongholds and fast-growing high-value segments have continued to solidify the global competitiveness and sustained resilience of Dubai’s tourism sector. This past decade, and 2019 in particular, have delivered unmatched acceleration in Dubai’s stature as a ‘Destination of Choice’ for global travelers assuring advancement toward the vision of Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al-Maktoum, vice president and prime minister of the UAE and ruler of Dubai, to make it the No. 1 most visited, preferred and revisited global city. While the global economy remains in a state of flux, we can clearly see an exciting opportunity to further grow Dubai’s dominance in the tourism industry in 2020 ...”
Impressive growth is evidenced by Dubai’s top six source markets — India, Saudi Arabia, UK, Oman, China and Russia — delivering more than 7 million visitors in 2019, with nine of the top 10 countries crossing half-a-million visitors each for the first time.
Results reveal India once again retains its No.1 market status, drawing the highest visitation with nearly 2 million visitors, thanks to high-impact delivery of timely, seasonal messaging, and segment specific campaigns.
Coming in strong at No. 2, Saudi Arabia consolidates its position as the GCC’s highest traffic generator with 1.6 million Saudis visiting Dubai — commendable in a year that saw a massive surge in availability of competitive domestic tourist products, from attractions and sporting events to entertainment and festivals, for the market. Eid and Saudi National Day holiday periods in 2019 broke all prior records with the latter alone registering a year-on-year growth of over 36 percent.
