DUBAI - Dubai attracted over 14.2 million overnight visitors in 2015,
recording a strong 7.5% increase over 2014 - double the United Nations World
Travel Organisation's (UNWTO) projected 3-4% global travel growth for the same
period, annual figures released by Dubai's Department of Tourism and Commerce
Marketing (Dubai Tourism) showed.
The emirate's tourism sector once again proved the
tenacity and strength of its economic contribution, as it made steady progress
towards the target of 20 million visitors per year by 2020, despite a year
afflicted by macro-economic uncertainties, and amidst a particularly turbulent
geo-political climate during the second half of 2015 internationally.
Helal Saeed Almarri, Director General, Dubai
Tourism, said: "Under the vision of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin
Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of
Dubai, last year was a very strong year for Dubai's travel sector, achieving
double the global industry growth levels and our international visitation
hitting 14.2 million, which firmly positions us as the fourth most visited city
in the world. 2015 was volatile for travel globally, as we have all witnessed a
range of disruptive factors, ranging from slackening economic growth in Asian
and European markets to currency fluctuations across the world.
''Yet if Dubai is to hit its 20 million visitors
per year target in the next five years, we must deliver a threshold 7-8% annual
growth consistently, which has put even greater emphasis on strong sector-wide
collaboration.
"Our performance over the past 12 months is
undeniably reflective of the resilience of our diversified market strategy, our
unified industry-level responsiveness, and ultimately the sustained strength of
Dubai's proposition."
Through the pursuit of a multi-geography visitation
mix strategy, Dubai furthered the performance achieved in the first half of the
year to deliver strong growth across key feeder regions, mitigating the
downward trends in specific countries.
The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) remained the
regional foothold, supporting continued demand from near-markets to Dubai,
consequently delivering the highest share of visitor volumes for 2015, with a
total of 3.3 million, up 12.8% over 2014.
In terms of country-specific volumes from the GCC,
the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia remained the lead market, contributing 1.54 million
visitors, followed by Oman accounting for over 1 million travelers. Kuwait and
Qatar were also among the top 20 markets, with the former the only one to
register a decline in growth versus 2014 yet retaining its top 10 position, and
the latter recovering strongly from mid-year with a high 32% year-on-year
increase for the full year of 2015.
Despite a sluggish economy and a strong US Dollar
constraining Dubai's competitiveness, Western Europe remained the second highest
regional contributor to visitor volumes, bringing in nearly 3 million tourists,
reflecting a solid 6.1% growth in numbers.
The UK remained within Dubai's top 3 source
countries with 11% growth, accounting for nearly 1.2 million visitors. Germany
also stayed in the top 10 list with 7% growth generating over 460,000 visitors,
followed by two others in the top 20 traffic generators - France showing a
slight decline primarily in the last quarter of 2015, and Italy remaining flat
versus 2014.
Northern European markets across the Nordics and
the Benelux, while independently small in volume, have been frontier growth
generators for tourism traffic in 2015, on the back of growing direct flight
capacity from the region.
South Asia was the next largest region by volume,
bringing in 2.3 million visitors, reflecting a 21.7% increase versus 2014.
India dominated the region, becoming Dubai's number one source market for the
first time by bringing in over 1.6 million tourists, and the country was the
second fastest growing market with a 26% year-on-year growth, followed by
Pakistan that ranked just outside the top five, ending 2015 at 11% growth and
513,000 visitors. Efforts to serve highly segment-specific messaging in cities
with the highest connectivity and latent capacity, as well as building stronger
trade ties in market with digital travel intermediaries, have yielded results
and will continue to enable Dubai to capture a share of the growing Indian
upper middle-class family and business segments.
Over 1.6 million visitors came from the wider
Middle East and North Africa region, representing a 1.3% growth - a strong
outcome in the face of heightened regional disturbances. Iran delivered a
reliable 6% increase to enter the top 10 rankings as a key source market, with
much of the remaining volumes attributable to Egypt and Jordan, each
independently registering robust 15% growth versus 2014 for the full year.
Asian markets (excluding the Indian sub-continent)
were the next largest regional contributors with a total of 1.2 million travelers to Dubai - a 17.9% increase for 2015 compared to the previous year.
With 450,000 Chinese tourists to Dubai last year, inbound traffic from China
dominated the uptake from this region, topping the leader board of year-on-year
growth trends with a 29% increase in numbers. The Philippines delivered 325,000
tourists, with a particularly strong third quarter performance raising it to
number 11 in the source market rankings.
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