A surge in arrivals over the summer months accelerated Dubai’s tourism momentum, as the city welcomed 12.08 million international overnight visitors in the first nine months of 2019, according to the latest visitation figures released by Dubai Tourism.
The sharp 4.3% increase in volume growth compared to the same period last year was supported by highly participatory contributions from both traditional and emerging markets. This has continued to capture strong shares of the tourist wallet, further stimulating Dubai’s GDP impact and the city’s remarkable consistency in transforming itself to respond to global competition.
The positive performance, which drew over 1.23 million visitors to the city in September, an above-market average increase of 7.3% over the same month in 2018, coincided with Dubai being ranked the fourth most visited city in the world for the fifth year in a row in Mastercard’s Global Destination Cities Index.
Dubai Tourism’s multi-dimensional market-specific strategies and customised campaigns continued to yield tangible results. This is particularly true in regards to showcasing the city’s ability to reinvent itself and remain ‘top-of-mind’ to both new and repeat audiences across regular strongholds – India, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, United Kingdom, and Oman. Together with China, which remained the world’s largest tourism volume driver, these five leading feeder countries surpassed the five million threshold for the first nine months of 2019.