Visitor numbers to Dubai are continuing to climb back towards pre-Iran conflict levels, with international arrivals reaching seven million in the year to the end of August.
A further 500,000 UK visitors have arrived since August, two-thirds of the figure for the same period last year, according to Hoor Al Khaja, Senior Vice President, International Operations at Dubai’s Department of Economy and Tourism (DET).
Speaking at World Travel Market (WTM) this week, she said Emirates was ‘back to full capacity’ and noted that British Airways has just resumed daily direct flights from London.
“Things are moving upwards,” she said. “The great thing for us is that we have a long-term ‘North Star’ strategy to be one of the best cities in the world by 2033, for visitors and for residents.
“While this has been a challenging year, our growth story continues. We continue to invest in partnerships and infrastructure, in line with the city’s needs.”
She said DET had been working ‘very closely’ with the trade since March, including supporting agent fam trips.
“We have some exciting fam trips coming up, such as a cultural Ramadan fam in February, and our ‘Mystery Stopover’ fam will be repeated next year too.
“The city continues to grow. We have a lot of exciting new hotels, such as Six Senses on the Palm and Aman, both opening in January, and a new four-star Hoxton Hotel opening sometime next year in Dubai Media City.”
