Dubai Jan-Oct visitor numbers show year-on-year increase
Visitor numbers released by Dubai Tourism reveal that more than 11.7M international overnight visitors arrived in the Emirati city during the first 10 months of 2015 – an 8.3% (900,000) increase compared to the same period in 2014 (the increase in numbers goes hand in hand with a 7% rise in hotel room supply over the same period).
Asia showed the largest growth, with a 54% and 32% increase in international overnight visitors from the Philippines and China respectively, however established markets such as the UK and Germany also saw double-digit growth (both 11%), while other Western markets such as Canada and the US saw healthy increases in visitors as the city appeals to an ever-broader audience. The Middle East remains the largest regional source market with a 24% share of Dubai’s total visitors, while Western European visitors contributed 20% to the total number of visitors (territory- and region-specific stats are included below).
The city’s strengthened and diverse offering means it is on track to achieve its ambition of attracting 20 million visitors per year by 2020.
Issam Kazim, CEO of Dubai Corporation for Tourism and Commerce Marketing, said, “To date this year, we have strong visitor growth from nearly all core source markets, which has been further supplemented by tactical engagement with other inbound emerging markets, to allow us to see strong like-for-like growth over 2014. In line with visitor growth, Dubai’s hotel inventory and room nights recorded an increase of seven and eight per cent respectively, further bolstering our overall proposition.”
Festivals and events like the 2016 Dubai Shopping Festival and Dubai Food Festival are seen as key visitor drivers in early 2016.
This results capture tourism numbers from Jan-Oct 15.
Dubai at night
Top 20 Source Markets
Ranking Markets Number of Visitors in 2015
Number of Visitors in 2014
Percentage increase/decrease
1 KSA 1,316,000 1,114,000 18%
2 India 1,269,000 1,012,000 25%
3 UK 974,000 871,000 12%
4 Oman 830,000 704,000 18%
5 US 490,000 473,000 4%
6 Pakistan 421,000 380,000 11%
7 Iran 396,000 360,000 10%
8 China 379,000 286,000 32%
9 Germany 367,000 331,000 11%
10 Kuwait 361,000 398,000 -9%
11 Australia 273,000 296,000 -8%
12 Philippines 262,000 171,000 54%
13 Egypt 253,000 216,000 17%
14 France 203,000 211,000 -4%
15 Russia 164,000 341,000 -52%
16 Nigeria 163,000 185,000 -12%
17 Qatar 157,000 118,000 32%
18 Italy 155,000 151,000 3%
19 Jordan 153,000 127,000 21%
20 Canada 133,000 118,000 13%
