Dubai witnesses 12% growth in 2016 from India
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Dubai has witnessed a 12 per cent growth from the India market in 2016 with an overall footfall touching 1.8 million mark. India still continues to be the number one market for Dubai in 2016.
Hamad M Bin Mejren, Senior Vice President, Dubai Corporation for Tourism & Commerce Marketing said, “We have seen 12 per cent growth from the India market in 2016. India once again stands out as the number one source market for Dubai. It is the leading market for us. We are focusing on the family segment, which is a major chunk in our overall footfall. With our international overnight traffic reaching 14.9 million, Dubai has cemented its ranking as the fourth most visited city in the world, critically delivering the highest value to the domestic economy with our number one ranking in terms of spend per tourist compared to any other competitor destination.”
In 2016, Dubai witnessed the opening of two theme parks which is in line with their vision of making Dubai a family destination. In 2017, Dubai will be showcasing novel products to the Indian market to attract repeat clientele. “We recently added two theme parks which directly fall into the strategy to attract family visitors. IMG, which is the largest indoor theme park and Dubai Parks and Resorts, which also includes Bollywood theme park, are fantastic additions to diversify our profile. This year the major addition will be the Dubai Safari, which will be one of the best safaris in the heart of Dubai. This all will contribute to family tourism. This year we will also get La Perle by Dragone, which is a theatre, which will be Broadway style show that will be permanent in Dubai. Also we will promote Hatta, which is fantastic for trekking,” Merjan informed.
In recent years, Dubai has also seen a rise in the number of cruise tourists. For the year 2016-17, Dubai is expecting around 600,000 cruise travellers. “Cruise Tourism has been promoted since the late 1900’s; it is now well over 15 years. It has seen a tremendous growth in the recent years. For the season 2016-17, we expect around 600,000 cruise passengers. In 2001, we built our cruise terminal then we had only 7000 cruise passengers with 70 cruise ships. In 2006, Costa Cruises pioneered in home porting in Dubai. That attracted many other companies. Today, we have six companies home porting with eight ships. We have created in 2013 the cruise Arabia alliance, which consists of regional tourism authorities including; Oman, Qatar, Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah, Bahrain all under one umbrella. When we talk about cruise tourism we don’t talk about the destination, we talk about the region as it is important to promote the whole region as cruising hub” he said.
Also, Dubai has now entered the top 10 cities in the world in terms of supply of rooms. Speaking about the further pipeline Mejren said, “All these years the number of visitors is increasing, with this we are also getting a lot of hotel investments in the region. Recently, we surpassed the 100,000 rooms which make us amongst the top 10 cities in terms of supply of rooms. By 2020, when the Expo 2020 will be held, we are looking somewhere between 140,000 to 160,000 rooms to accommodate the footfall.”