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Dubai sees international visitors surge 214%

The Waldorf Astoria in Dubai
The Waldorf Astoria in Dubai

Dubai hosted 3.97 million overnight international visitors in the first quarter of 2022, up 214 percent from the same period last year, the emirate’s government said on Tuesday.

The Expo 2020 Dubai world fair, which ran from October to March and which Dubai looked to as a to boost its economy, saw 24 million visits by domestic and international tourists, a report by Dubai’s executive council said.

After travel curbs and curfews in the early days of the pandemic, Dubai, one of the United Arab Emirates seven emirates and a regional trade and tourism hub, was one of the few international tourism hubs which stayed open to visitors through repeated global lockdowns.

Dubai’s Crown Prince Hamdan bin Mohammed said the growth in visitors was evidence that Dubai was at the forefront of a global tourism recovery.

Dubai topped global hotel occupancy rates in the first quarter of 2022, at 82 percent, the report said.