Helal Saeed Almarri

Saudi Arabia continued to be Dubai’s primary source market as more than 5.8 million tourists stayed in Dubai hotels during the first half of 2014. India, the UK, the United States, Russia, China, Iran, Oman, Kuwait and Germany are among the other toppers in the list.

The statistics, released by Dubai’s Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DTCM) on Sunday, show increases across key indicators, including hotel establishment guests, hotel and hotel apartment room revenues, F&B revenue and average length of stay.

In the first half of 2014, guest numbers across hotels and hotel apartments reached 5,828,449, an increase on figures for the same period in 2013. Dubai’s top 10 tourism source markets remained for the most part unchanged compared to the previous year.

The top 10 markets showed some slight changes in positioning and continue to show the diversity of visitors traveling to Dubai. Saudi Arabia, India, the UK, the United States, Russia, China, Iran, Oman, Kuwait and Germany made up the top ten for January to June 2014.

“The figures for the first half of 2014 are encouraging and we continue to build on this growth to ensure a successful second half of the year. The figures show an increase in visitors from many of our key source markets; for example, we are seeing strong growth from China, Brazil, Australia and many countries in Europe,” said Helal Saeed Almarri, director general of DTCM.

“The increase comes despite the reduction in flights due to the refurbishment and upgrading of the runways at Dubai International, which is testament to the work conducted by Dubai Airports and our industry partners in ensuring minimal disruption,” he added.

Hotels and hotel apartments saw steady growth in guest nights during the first half of the year with figures up by 6.7 percent for hotels and 4.1 percent for hotel apartments. Increasing the length of stay has been identified as a key driver of tourism growth across Dubai within the Tourism Vision for 2020, and average length of stay increased across the board, with an average of 3.9 days — length of stay in hotels increased to 3.4 days and hotel apartments to 5.7 days.

 
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