High tourist numbers reflect Dubai charm

Dubai is a city of superlatives and its penchant for the Number 1 slot is well known. Its ability to amaze the world with a line up of magnificent projects is unparalleled. The city is considered the world’s most inspiring and sought-after destination, and the beauty is that it refuses to rest of its laurels.

Dubai has once again lived up to its reputation of being the most visited city in the region. According to UK-based Euromonitor International’s Top 100 City Destinations 2019 report, Dubai ranks No.1 city in the Middle East and Africa and is among top 10 most visited destinations in the world.

Dubai continues to lead the Middle East and Africa in terms of numbers of international arrivals.

There were as many as 15.9 million international tourist arrivals in 2018 and 16.3 million in 2019.

Dubai builds on its strong performance in the number of international tourist arrivals last year, with Euromonitor highlighting the availability of a free transit visa for two days and its various theme park offerings.

Driven by its success as a focal point for global trade, and an important transportation hub, it has built a global reputation as a city with a highly developed infrastructure that boasts world-class standards in every sector.

The list of its achievements is endless.

Dubai has now demonstrated industry excellence as the World’s Leading Business Travel Destination 2019 and the World’s Leading MICE Destination 2019 for the second consecutive year, recognising the city’s robust capabilities to cater to a wide range of global travel and business events.

The Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing, Dubai Tourism, is celebrating the two award wins at the 26th annual World Travel Awards.

As Issam Kazim, CEO of Dubai Corporation for Tourism and Commerce Marketing, points out, “Dubai continues to accelerate towards becoming a preferred global business and investment destination, hosting world-class strategic conferences, meetings and incentive groups as well as offering business travellers a holistic and innovative environment to connect and collaborate. The city’s most recent wins at the World Travel Awards 2019 are testament to the continued efforts in showcasing Dubai’s capabilities on the global stage.”

The recognition for Dubai comes as the emirate prepares to host a number of high profile and large-scale business events. This month Dubai will welcome the 10,000-strong Amway Asia Pacific Leadership Seminar, while next year it will also host the International Astronautical Congress, the Million Dollar Round Table Global Conference and the Global Symposium on Health Systems Research.

As per the latest rankings from the International Congress and Convention Association and Cvent, Dubai continues to consolidate its position as the number one host city for business events in the region.

With Expo 2020 expected to attract 25 million visits and participants from 190 countries from October 2020 to April 2021, Dubai remains super excited and is brimming with enthusiasm.

During this period, the World Expo is expected to contribute approximately 1.5 per cent of the UAE’s annual forecast gross domestic product. Small and medium-sized enterprises, SMEs, are estimated to receive Dhs4.7 billion in investment during the pre-Expo phase, supporting approximately 12,600 job-years.

The Emirate has repeatedly demonstrated that the word “impossible” does not exist in its dictionary.

As His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, UAE Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, remarked earlier, “The future does not wait for those who hesitate.”