Dubai tourism flourishes as visitor numbers rise by 9%

Visit Dubai/X

Dubai attracted 9.3 million international visitors in the first half of 2024, a year-on-year rise of 9 percent.

The emirate hosted just over 17 million international visitors last year, the UAE state-run Wam news agency reported, citing data from the Dubai Department of Economy and Tourism.

Helal Saeed Almarri, director-general of Dubai Department of Economy and Tourism, was quoted as saying that Dubai’s success stems from “a diversified market approach, strong public-private partnerships, liberal visa policies and alternative growth pathways”.

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Average occupancy levels in Dubai from January to June 2024 reached 78.7 percent, up from 77.7 percent in the same period last year. Occupied room nights increased by 3 percent year on year at 21.4 million.

The average daily rate rose to AED558 ($152) in the first half, an increase of 4 percent year on year, while revenue per available room (RevPAR) jumped 6 percent annually to AED439.

The total available rooms in the emirate reached 150,879 by the end of June 2024, compared to 148,689 rooms in June 2023.

The number of Dubai hotels reached 823, up from 810 a year ago.

The wider GCC welcomed 1.3 million visitors from January to June 2024, or 14 percent of the global total.

Western Europe accounted for 20 percent of visitors at nearly 2 million. South Asia was another major source market, with 1.6 million visitors (17 percent), while Eastern Europe and the CIS bloc of former Soviet countries combined saw 1.4 million (15 percent) visitors.

North-east and South-east Asia grew from an 8 percent share at the beginning of the year to a 10 percent share (896,000) of total visitors by the end of H1 2024, driven by strong recovery from China.

Other regions also saw a rise in tourist numbers, including the Americas with 617,000 (7 percent), Africa with 404,000 (4 percent) and Australasia with 154,000 (2 percent).