The last two decades have completely reshaped the digital landscape of UAE. By creating a conducive environment for digital technologies through infrastructure and policies, UAE has now grown into the most digital-friendly country in the Middle East. By promoting innovators, the country has also been playing a prominent role in the growth of new digital technologies.
Perched on the shores of the Persian Gulf and flowing in from the magnificent dunes of the Arabian Desert is the City of Lights. Dubai is a treat for the senses for any tourist or experience seeker.
In the list of international luxury holiday destinations, Dubai holds a special place. And why not! The city hosts the world’s tallest building, the largest indoor theme park, the biggest shopping mall and one of the most magnificent man-made islands in the world. But that’s not all. At the core of this sprawling garden of tall towers is a city rich in culture and history.
In this spirit of travel, we set out to explore the tourism scene in Dubai and chanced upon some fascinating facts.
Find out the major tourist destinations and other interesting Tourism Statistics of Dubai in 2018.
Rooms for Everyone
Last year, Dubai had more than 15.8 visitors from around the world. In addition to a plethora of sights and delights that attracted these high number of people, Dubai is also well-equipped in terms of accommodations for dealing with this kind of inflow. The emirate has more than 684 hotels, offering a total of 107,717 rooms. These rooms are available across a whole spectrum of price ranges, catering to everyone from the luxury tourist to the budget traveler. The average daily rate for rooms in Dubai is 592 AED.
Most Visited City
Standing Tall Among Equals
Dubai is right up there with some of the most sought after tourist destinations in the world. In the list of the most visited cities in the world, Dubai ranks 6th. This puts it ahead of cities like New York, Rome, Amsterdam, and Kuala Lumpur. In fact, Dubai is also the only city from the MENA region in the top 10.
Hong Kong, with 27.9 million visitors, is at the top of our list; followed by Bangkok and London with 21.2 and 19.8 million visitors respectively. Paris and Singapore complete the list of top 5s.
Tourist Sources of Dubai
To Dubai, From All Over the World
India retained its position as the biggest source of tourists for Dubai. In fact, in 2017, it became the first country ever to have more than 2 million visitors coming to the emirate in a single year. India’s 2.1 million visitors made up more than 13% of the total number of tourists to Dubai in 2017. Compared to 2016, the number of tourists from India have grown by 15%, more than double the average growth of 6-7%.
Saudi Arabia stands second in the list with 1.52 million visitors. The U.K. was third with 1.26 million visitors. The biggest increase in visitors was from China and Russia. This was mainly because of the newly implemented visa-on-arrival facilities for these countries.
Top 5 Tourist Destination
There’s a Lot to See in the City of Lights
Dubai is packed with a ton of adventure sports and must see attractions. Whether you’re looking for entertainment, art, adventure, or just want to bask in the luxury of the land, there’s a lot that Dubai offers you. This includes everything from the world’s tallest building to the world’s largest indoor ski resort.
Some of the most visited tourist destinations in Dubai are the Burj Al Arab, the Dubai Museum, the Dubai Mall, the Palm Islands and Ski Dubai.
International Tourist in Dubai
More & More Year-on-Year
In 2017 Dubai witnessed a record 15.8 million visitors. This is an impressive 6.2% increase in the number of visitors compared to the year before. The growth is also higher than the previous year’s 5%. Overall, there has been an increase of 3.6 million visitors (nearly 30%) over the past 4 years.
Dubai aims to attract nearly 20 million visitors by 2020. To this end, the administration has been running a series of promotions and campaigns to project Dubai as a leading global tourist destination. A wide range of initiatives like visa-on-arrival facilities for more countries and no charge transits for up to 48 hours have been launched to attract more tourists.
The rate at which the number of visitors are increasing every year, Dubai’s goal of attaining the title of the most visited city in the world doesn’t seem too far away.
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia ranks 41st in the list of most populous countries of the world. After the discovery of oil, the country’s population has grown over ten times, from below 3 million in 1938 to over 33 million in 2018 – more than 10 million of them are expatriates. This blog offers the latest stats on the population of Saudi Arabia and has been verified with information from some of the most reputed sources.
Driven by the newly elevated crown prince Mohammed bin Salman, Saudi Arabia is undergoing unprecedented social changes. The whole of Saudi society is moving towards a more progressive mindset. This modernism is being reflected in how they engage with each other and the rest of the world over social media and the internet.
The Emirati population has taken to social media like fish to water. Emiratis, on average, spend 2.56 hours on social media daily. Much like in the rest of the world, social media has become one of the most essential parts of daily internet usage in the UAE. It has given a voice to the ignored and served as a melting pot of ideas of all kinds.
Ecommerce has been one of the fastest growing businesses in the Middle East, and UAE has some of the most exciting online shopping figures in the region. Propelled by the country’s near complete internet penetration and its reputation as a world-class shopping destination, ecommerce has witnessed incredible growth in the UAE over the past 5 years. So much so that terms like “megatrend” have increasingly come to be used when talking about ecommerce in the country. In the following sections we explore this growth in detail and try to understand the varied characteristics of the ecommerce space in the UAE.
As the most technically sophisticated city in one of the fastest developing countries in the world, Dubai’s embrace of internet technologies and social media has been extraordinary. Out of the UAE’s population of about 9.54 million, around 9 million are active Facebook users. Out of total number of Facebook users in the UAE, nearly half are based in Dubai. Below we take a detailed and comprehensive visual look at a few Facebook related stats for the emirate.
Based on our research on the 2018 population statistics of the UAE, Facebook continues to be the most popular social media channel in the Emirates. Facebook is a powerful medium to get your message across as 97% of the UAE population (9 million out of 9.54 million) use it on a regular basis. The country is Facebook’s biggest user base in the Gulf region.
From what were mere placid backwaters in the late 70s and 80s, the UAE emerged as a federation of seven emirates to become one of the most influential nations in the Gulf region. UAE population have doubled in the past decade. Today, it holds the position as an important economic and cultural hub of the Middle East. It is also one of the most liberal countries in this region with high levels of tolerance and acceptance of other religions and faiths.
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