Dubai: Dubai’s visitor numbers are expected to have increased in 2014 against a backdrop of a strengthening dollar.
A strong dollar could negatively impact tourism in countries like the UAE, which is pegged to the dollar, prompting tourists to go to cheaper destinations in Europe.
Issam Kazim, chief executive of the Dubai Corporation of Tourism and Commerce Marketing, said that visitor numbers grew by five per cent from January to November 2014 compared with the same period in 2013, but did not provide the actual figure and growth rate for the full year.
While the number of tourists is expected to have grown last year, the growth rate is anticipated to have been lower compared with 2013’s rate.
“We saw over 10 per cent [growth in visitor numbers] in 2013. I think last year was slightly below that,” Kazim said at the Destination Dubai conference in Dubai on Tuesday.
Dubai’s visitor numbers were previously expected to grow by 7-9 per cent annually until 2020, but numbers were higher than anticipated in 2013, when Dubai attracted 11 million visitors.
While Kazim did not provide an explanation of why growth in visitors is likely to have slowed down last year, the decline in Russian visitors may have accounted for that.
Holidaymakers from Russia dropped last year at a time when a weakening rouble amid falling oil prices and western economic sanctions imposed on Russia have stopped some Russians from travelling. The price of global benchmark Brent crude has dropped below $50 a barrel, falling by more than half since June 2014.
“If you look at the percentage within the Russian figures, it was a huge decline. But if you look at the overall percentage that Russia makes for Dubai’s tourism, it’s not that big. [Russians] make roughly 3.5-3.6 per cent of our overall tourist figures,” Kazim said. He did not say how much the drop in Russians in Dubai was in 2014.
“With the messages we are going to be sending about tourism in Dubai, we will not neglect Russia. We believe that [Russians] will come back again,” he added.
Visitors from China are expected to have grown by around 25 per cent in 2014, according to Kazim. Saudi Arabia, India and the UK are Dubai’s top three tourism source markets.
On whether Dubai’s tourism sector has been impacted by falling oil prices, Kazim said: “[It] would take some time until we see the effects of that.” The emirate aims to double the number of hotel rooms to accommodate the 20 million visitors it anticipates by 2020. It is encouraging developers to build three- and four-star hotels to cater to families and business travellers. Incentives have been introduced to encourage the development of such hotels, such as allocating government land and the exemption from the Dubai municipality fee for five years for properties operating before June 2017.
“By November last year, we had over 51 applications for new three- and four-star hotels,” Kazim said.
There are more than 80,000 hotel rooms in Dubai, with an additional 20,000 rooms expected to be delivered by 2016. An additional 7,000 rooms entered the market between November 2013 and November 2014. By 2020, Dubai is expected to have 150,000 rooms.
