Dubai attracts 5.5 million visitors in H1 of 2013
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More than 5.5 million tourists visited Dubai in the first half (H1) of 2013, representing an 11.1% year-on-year increase, indicating that Dubai is on the way to achieving its Tourism Vision for 2020.
The first half visitor numbers were released by Dubai’s Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DTCM). The results showed an increase across all key indicators, including hotel establishment guests, hotel and hotel apartment revenues, room occupancy and average length of stay.
His Excellency Helal Saeed Almarri, director-general of DTCM said: “The figures are extremely encouraging and indicate that we are on the way to achieving our Tourism Vision for 2020. Our strategy is to position Dubai as a foremost destination for both leisure and business travellers and attracting visitors from a range of source markets. The increase in visitors from each of our key source markets is particularly encouraging, with a number of these markets showing particularly strong growth, including the GCC countries, China, India, Australia and many countries in Europe.”
Guest numbers across all hotel establishments (hotels and hotel apartments) reached 5,583,379, an 11.1% increase on the 5,027,223 in the first half of 2012 (Chart 1).
Dubai’s top 10 tourism source markets remained the same with some slight changes in positioning. Saudi Arabia, India, UK, USA, Russia, Germany, Kuwait, Oman, China and Iran made up the top ten for January to June 2013 (Chart 2). Saudi Arabia experienced the most growth, with visitor numbers swelling by 31.6% to 710,472. Australia (ranked 13th) also recorded a sizeable rise in visitor numbers, with growth rates of 24.3% resulting from the partnership between Emirates Airline and Qantas. The Netherlands entered the top 20 source markets for the first time, at number 20, with a 17% increase in visitors. China (ranked 9th) and India (ranked 2nd), continued to show strong increases, with visitors from both markets up by 15.8% buoyed both by the growth in the emerging middle class and first-time international travellers.
HOSPITALITY OVERVIEW
The occupancy rate for hotel rooms and hotel apartments saw steady growth during the first half of the year. Hotel room occupancy averaged 84.6% over the six month period, up 2.8% from 81.8% in the first half of 2012, while the occupancy rate for hotel apartments was 85.8%, up 6.5% from 79.3% in H1 2012.
The emirate witnessed opening of 16 new hotel establishments since June 2012, bringing the number of establishments to 603 and adding 5,484 rooms, which now totals 81,492: a 7.2% increase since the end of H1 2012. In the first six months of the year, the average length of stay across hotels and hotel apartments was 3.89 days – arise on the average 3.82 day stay in H1 2012.
Revenues for hoteliers and hotel apartment operators saw significant growth – with total first half revenues reaching AED11.62bn (US$3.18bn) up by 18.6%. Total guest nights also recorded similarly impressive rises, up 13.1% to 21,715,848 from 19,209,037 – or more than 2.5 million additional guest nights from January to June 2013 when compared to the first six months of 2012.
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