Published on : Friday, August 29, 2014
Director-General of Dubai’s Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DTCM) his Excellency Helal Saeed Almarri commented that the department’s strategy continued to be positioning Dubai as the must-experience family destination.
According to a statistics released this week by Dubai’s Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DTCM) hotels in Dubai received above 5.8 million guests in the first half of 2014 – the highest number of visitors ever achieved in the first six months of the year.
The statistics show increases across key indicators including hotel establishment guests, hotel and hotel apartment room revenues, F&B revenue and average length of stay.
Guest numbers across all hotel establishments reached 5,828,449 in the first half of 2014, an increase on figures for the same period in 2013.
Dubai’s top 10 tourism source markets remained for the most part unchanged compared to the previous year.
The top 10 markets showed some slight changes in positioning and continue to show the diversity of visitors travelling to Dubai.
Saudi Arabia, India, UK, USA, Russia, China, Iran, Oman, Kuwait and Germany made up the top ten for January to June 2014.
Guest nights saw steady growth during the first half of the year with figures up by 6.7 percent for hotels and 4.1 percent for hotel apartments.
Increasing the length of stay has been identified as a key driver of tourism growth across Dubai within the Tourism Vision for 2020, and average length of stay increased across the board, with an average of 3.9 days – length of stay in hotels increased to 3.4 days and hotel apartments to 5.7 days.
Revenues for hoteliers and hotel apartment operators saw significant growth – with total first half revenues reaching AED12.74billion (US$3.18bn) up by 10.9 percent. Hotels and hotel apartments reported increases in room revenue (15.3 percent) as well as F&B & other revenue, which rose by 3.8 percent.
His Excellency Helal Saeed Almarri added that in addition to the increase in hotel guest numbers, since the end of June 2013, Dubai has added more than 7,000 hotel rooms to its inventory, with the total now standing at 88,680 across 634 establishments.
Dubai hosted leading events including the Dubai Shopping Festival, Emirates Airline Festival of Literature and the Dubai World Cup in the first half of the year, which have all contributed towards the growth in visitor numbers.
Dubai’s status as the region’s leading Meetings Incentives Conferences and Events (MICE) hub has also played a central role in boosting first half visitor numbers, with the visit of more than 14,500 Chinese delegates for one incentive trip in April demonstrating the value of this sector.
Major business events held during the first six months of 2014 included Gulfood, Arabian Travel Market, and Intersec.
In the second half of 2014, plenty of events scheduled in Dubai including Dubai Summer Surprises and Modhesh World which is currently taking place through to September; Disney on Ice; GITEX Shopper; DP World Tour Championship; Eid in Dubai; the Rugby 7′s and Dubai International Film Festival, and much more which will contribute to attracting visitors in the second half of the year.
Tags: dubai, family holidays, tourism destination
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