RIYADH: Dubai's tourism sector is on course to rebound strongly from the negative impacts of the pandemic as the emirate welcomed 3.1 million visitors in the first two months of 2023, according to Emirates NBD.
The number of visitors in January was up 50 percent on a year-on-year basis although it was still 9 percent below the pre-pandemic levels.
In February, Dubai welcomed 1.63 million visitors, up 35 percent year-on-year and up 7 percent on pre-pandemic levels, noted the government-owned bank in a report.
Emirates NBD said India was the largest source of tourists during the months of January and February, with 401,000 visitors reaching Dubai. This was followed by Russia with 229,000 visitors, Oman with 201,000 visitors, and the UK with 196,000 visitors.
Dubai welcomed 183,000 visitors from Saudi Arabia, which, the report said, were still around one-third below pre-pandemic levels for January and February.
During the same period, 52,000 Chinese travelers visited Dubai, which is down 75 percent from the pre-pandemic period in 2019. The report noted the number of Chinese visitors may not fully recover to pre-pandemic levels in 2023, but significant improvement is expected this year.
Meanwhile, hosting events like Gulf Food and IDEX helped emirates like Dubai and Abu Dhabi to deliver a formidable performance in 2023, in terms of tourist arrivals, according to the latest JLL report titled UAE Real Estate Market Overview.
The rise in arrival numbers helped Dubai hotels improve their average occupancy rates which climbed to 84.4 percent in January and February, a 6.4 percent increase year-on-year and 0.2 percent higher than in 2019, noted the Emirates NBD report.
The report, however, added that the guest’s length of stay declined from 4.3 nights to an average of four nights, and the average daily rate declined by 2 percent to $169.64.
The report further pointed out that the number of total available rooms grew by 7 percent year-on-year to 148,450 rooms.
According to the report, five-star hotels in Dubai had the biggest share of the inventory at 34 percent, while four-stars hotels made up 29 percent. Hotels from one to three stars made up 20 percent of the overall hotel rooms in the emirate.
