More tourists from the Philippines, Pakistan and China visited Dubai in the first 10 months of 2016 compared to the same period last year, official figures from Dubai Tourism reveal.
The Philippines reported a 19 percent increase in visitor numbers, growing from 262,000 to 311,000. They were closely followed by Pakistanis which registered 16 percent jump to 489,000 from 421,000.
The third on the list were Chinese with the number rising 13 percent to 428,000 from 379,000.
The emirate also witnessed a rebound in the number of visitors from Russia – a market that had been affected by Rouble devaluation in 2014-2015. Visitor numbers rose 8 percent to 177,000 from 164,000.
Indians remained the biggest source of tourists as numbers surged 11 percent to 1.4 million from 1.27 million, Dubai Tourism stats showed.
A four percent increase each was registered from tourists from Saudi Arabia and the United Kingdom. The former saw numbers rising from 1.31m to 1.36m, while the latter saw numbers growing from 974,000 to 1.01m.
Dubai is gearing up to welcome 25 million tourists by 2020, spending billions of dollars in building high-quality infrastructure and tourist destinations – the latest being Dubai Harbour, a waterfront destination that features the MENA region’s largest marina and the Dubai Lighthouse.
