India tops Dubai's foreign tourism sector with over 6L visitors
India has topped the list of Dubai's source markets for inbound tourism, with 617,000 tourists from the country arriving in the emirate from January-March 2018, registering an impressive 7% year-on-year increase. Welcoming 4.7mn international overnight tourists, Dubai posted a stable 2% increase in traffic as compared to last year, as reported by Dubai's Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (Dubai Tourism).
India helped Dubai to level out relatively stable second-placed Saudi Arabia (minus 1%) and steeper decline in visitation from the UK (minus 8%), placed third. Russia ended the quarter in fourth place, continuing its upward trajectory by topping the growth charts with a stellar 106% increase over Q1 2017, delivering 259,000 tourists, benefiting from availability of visa-on-arrival facilities for Russian citizens from last year.
Fifth-placed China also continued to leverage its visa-on-arrival status, delivering 258,000 Chinese visitors, up a strong 12%. Posting double-digit increases in most countries, Europe made particularly strong contributions in the first-three-months of the year, with Germany in seventh place, up 13% with 194,000 visitors, France up 17% with 103,000 in 12th place, and 14th-placed Italy up 20% with 80,000.
In a record first appearance, Sweden featured among Dubai's top 20 source markets, delivering 42,000 visitors, up 9%. Travellers from eighth-placed US increased by a moderate 2%, while declines were witnessed by both ninth-placed Iran and 10th-placed Pakistan at 19 and 22%. Western Europe retained pole-position, contributing an unprecedented 23% of overnight visitor volumes, ahead of GCC and South Asia, both with 17% shares.
