UAE : Dubai welcomed 3.7 million overseas visitors in the past 11 months despite Covid
Dubai welcomed 3.7 million visitors in 11 months despite the restrictions due to the coronavirus disease (Covid-19), according to the emirate’s tourism department. The data shared the inflow of overnight visitors from July 2020 to May 2021. While 1.7 million visitors came to Dubai between July and December 2020, an additional two million visited the emirate in the first five months of 2021, according to data from Dubai’s Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing.
Dubai airport’s Terminal 1 reopened in June after a 15-month closure. Flights were operated through Terminal 2 and Terminal 3 last year amid the Covid-19 pandemic. Meanwhile, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) announced last month that it will continue to ban entry from India and 13 other countries. Cargo flights, business and charter flights will be exempted from this ban.
According to a statement released, the evolving travel landscape has brought forth some noteworthy performances from feeder and emerging markets, especially CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States) countries like Kazakhstan and Ukraine, and East African markets Ethiopia and Sudan, that have all exhibited strong growth potential to be among the top 15 source markets for Dubai since it reopened its doors to global travellers.
City hotels welcomed 5.5 million domestic visitors between July 2020 and May 2021, compared to 2.66 million domestic hotel arrivals during the period July 2019 to May 2020, astounding year-on-year growth of 106 per cent, it said. Several safety initiatives were launched, including a wide range of precautionary measures, in addition to effective testing and vaccination programmes.
In addition to restarting leisure events, Dubai also developed a successful model for the recovery of the business events sector, which paved the way for the resumption of international events in October and subsequently the hosting of mega events such as GITEX in December 2020 and Gulfood, Arabian Travel Market and Arab Health in February, May and June respectively this year.
