The UAE and Dubai in particular are continuously engaged in reshaping and enhancing their prime locales, neighbourhoods and its peripherals. It is no surprise then that Dubai has once again lived up to its top billing as one the most visited city in the region (“Dubai is most visited city in ME and Africa region,” Dec.4, Gulf Today).

Dubai is a favourite haunt of global visitors because the emirate abounds in great entertainment, concerts, theme parks and cultural offerings, besides being one of the prime destinations for medical tourism.

That is outbeat New York City in the rankings is something to crow about. And so surely it is a feather in the cap of the emirate’s leadership to be ranked among the top global destinations.  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.

The emirate built on its strong performance in the number of international tourist arrivals last year, with Euromonitor highlighting that the availability of a free transit visa for two days and its various theme park offerings gave it the edge. Dubai witnessed 16.3 million arrivals this year, a rise from the 15.9 million international tourist arrivals last year.

Your article also stated that BBC selected the Palm Jumeirah island as one of the ‘amazing images of Earth art’ seen from above, and that Forbes which selects sustainability as one of the luxury travel trends for 2020 lauded Dubai stating that “it’s truly incredible to see how sustainability initiatives are taking over among both beach and city hotels,” with many hotels making efforts to get rid of plastics. This also goes to prove that it makes good business sense to be environment friendly.

Hats off to Dubai for the achievement.

Ismail Zaffar
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