Dubai

Despite growing currency pressures, Dubai’s tourism authority said that the sector rallied strongly in the first three months of 2018.

Figures released on Wednesday showed that Dubai continued to retain and grow its share of visitors from across global markets. Welcoming 4.7 million international overnight tourists from January 2018 to March 2018, the emirate posted a stable 2 per cent increase in traffic versus the same period last year, as reported by Dubai’s Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (Dubai Tourism).

The tourism body said in a statement that leading source markets continued to show their enthusiasm for Dubai, as the top three — India, Saudi Arabia and the UK — retained their positions versus 2017.

Recording an impressive 7 per cent year-on-year increase to deliver 617,000 visitors, India helped level out the slightly down second-placed Saudi Arabia (which slipped 1 per cent) and the steeper decline in visitation from third-placed UK (down 8 per cent).

In an interview on Tuesday, Dubai Tourism’s chief executive said that he would welcome Indians being granted visa-on-arrival status to the emirate.

Asked which countries he would like to see Dubai open up to more, Issam Kazim, CEO, Dubai Tourism, told Gulf News: “India for sure. For sure. That would be the easiest one for me to look at.”

Meanwhile, Russia ended the quarter in fourth place, continuing its upward trajectory by topping the growth charts with a stellar 106 per cent increase over the first quarter of 2017, delivering 259,000 tourists, benefiting from availability of visa-on-arrival facilities for Russian citizens from early last year.

Similarly, fifth-placed China also continued to leverage its visa-on-arrival status, delivering 258,000 Chinese visitors, up a strong 12 per cent.

Posting double-digit increases in most countries, Europe made particularly strong contributions in the first three months of the year, with Germany in seventh place up 13 per cent with 194,000 visitors, France up 17 per cent with 103,000 in 12th place, and 14th-placed Italy up 20 per cent with 80,000. In a record first appearance, Sweden featured among Dubai’s top 20 source markets, delivering 42,000 visitors, up 9 per cent.

Helal Saeed Al Merri, director general of Dubai Tourism, said: “The first quarter of the year has yielded stable performance supporting strong growth for all adjacent sectors like hotels and airlines. We expect to build on this strong base of 4.7 million visitors, to accelerate momentum through the summer and beyond — on the back of our strategic investments, partnerships, and policy enablers that are geared to collectively drive strong growth in 2018.