Travel is expected to reach an all-time high in the upcoming weeks for Emirates Airlines, as the carrier expects yet another busy period with travellers arriving into Dubai after the summer holidays and Eid breaks.

Excluding transit passengers, over 500,000 people are expected to arrive in Dubai from August 20 until the beginning of September.

Mohammed Mattar, Divisional Senior Vice President of Emirates Airport Services, said, “With another record-breaking period coming up when it comes to passenger arrivals, we want to ensure that Emirates customers coming back to Dubai have the best experience possible starting from disembarkation through to every touchpoint and have positioned extra resources to ensure a speedy arrival journey.”

Emirates has a number of services and initiatives in place to ensure stress-free movement from gate to arrivals, eliminating potential bottlenecks and cutting wait-times for passengers to complete their formalities. After disembarkation, passengers with restricted mobility can book wheelchair assistance from the aircraft to the terminal entrance. For families, baby strollers are available on arrivals for their convenience at every Emirates gate, placed in special cupboards so that customers can quickly identify them. Buggies are also available to customers upon request.

Emirates customers can expect reduced processing times at immigration counters when using smart gates, by simply using their Emirates ID or passport. They can ‘clear’ immigration in seconds without human intervention or the need for a physical passport return stamp.

Close to 500,000 bags will be processed during this period and extra resources are being deployed to ensure smooth baggage flows. Emirates passengers are informed about their designated baggage carousel prior to landing on their personal ice screens, so they can proceed and collect their bags with ease. Emirates also offers a Home Delivery service where luggage is retrieved, cleared at customs and delivered to customers for a hassle-free arrival experience.

Passengers can also access the Dubai metro directly from the arrivals area of Terminal 3. Services conveniently run every 10 minutes from 5 am to midnight on (Saturday to Thursday) and 10am to 1am on Friday.

Meanwhile Dubai welcomed 8.36 million international overnight visitors in the first six months (January-June) of 2019, posting a positive three per cent in tourism volume growth compared to the same period last year, according to the latest data released by Dubai’s Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (Dubai Tourism). The new figures reinforce the continued strength of Dubai’s tourism sector as a key driver of economic diversification and a reliable catalyst for GDP acceleration through 2020. The largest traffic generators as well as newer high-potential segments have set a strong preparatory pace to fuel Dubai’s climb to becoming the most visited global destination.

Helal Saeed Almarri, Director General, Dubai Tourism, commented: “Tourism is one of the cornerstones of Dubai’s diversified economic growth, and we measure success based on our ability to aggressively advance towards our goal to be the number one most visited and most preferred city as envisioned by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai. The consequent rise in value creation opportunities, and more inclusive sector participation are core priorities, as we equally strive to sustainably grow GDP contribution. Our first half results are a particularly encouraging reflection of our progress towards this ambition and underline the effectiveness of our diversified market outreach with holistic ‘awareness to booking’ cycle content amplification and audience delivery, through a deeply networked ecosystem of global partners, industry stakeholders and government enablers.”

The sustained effectiveness of the Department’s market-specific strategies and customised annual programming are evidenced in the tangible visitation outcomes delivered across the traditional strongholds, propelled by targeted campaigns highlighting Dubai’s propositions, and tapping into the city’s dynamic appeal and growing connectivity across continents.

India once again led the pack, drawing the highest half year volumes with 997,000 visitors - particularly noteworthy given the severe air traffic and seat capacity challenges due to geopolitical volatilities. Dubai continued to drive booking interest from Indians on a mass scale largely due to high-impact delivery of segment and season-specific campaigns across the most accessible Tier-1 and Tier-2 cities. From focused ‘family’ or ‘couple’ oriented promotions to the Bollywood megastar Shah Rukh Khan-led global #BeMyGuest campaign, the Department’s investments yielded strong returns, with the latter alone surpassing all records, logging 160 million views in a short few weeks.

Agencies