Dubai hosted 12.82 million overnight international visitors in the first 11 months of the year, more than 85 per cent of the pre-coronavirus levels during the same period in 2019.
The emirate's 11-month performance is also more than double 6.02 million people who visited the city in the same period in 2021, data from Dubai’s Department of Economy and Tourism showed.
The figures from January to November are 3.91 million visitors shy of its full-year 2019 performance of 16.73 million tourists.
Last month, the UAE launched a national tourism strategy to attract 40 million hotel guests by 2031 as it seeks to draw more people to live, work, invest and retire in the country.
India was Dubai's top source market during the reporting period, with 1.64 million visitors, up 106 per cent annually.
Oman, Saudi Arabia, the UK and Russia rounded off the top five markets.
The number of visitors from Oman jumped 449 per cent to 1.2 million, followed by Saudi Arabia (up 185 per cent to 1.1 million), the UK (up 198 per cent to 938,000) and Russia (73 per cent higher at 647,000).
The number of visitors from Israel jumped 157 per cent in the period to 199,000, ranking it 14th on a list of Dubai's top 20 source markets, after the signing of the Abraham Accords.
In terms of regions, tourist arrivals from the GCC made up the largest source of visitors, at 21 per cent, followed by western Europe (20 per cent), South Asia (17 per cent) and the Mena region (12 per cent).
Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States followed with 11 per cent.
The jump in tourist arrivals kept Dubai's hotels busy, with occupancy during rising to 73 per cent from January to November, up from 66 per cent in the same period of 2021 but below the 75 per cent recorded in the same period in 2019.
“Average occupancy in year-to-date November 2022 only was only 2.3 percentage points less than pre-pandemic levels, despite the 17 per cent increase in room inventory,” the department said.
Dubai has 794 hotels with 145,098 available rooms.
Revenue per available room or RevPAR, a hospitality industry performance metric, stood at Dh378 in the first 11 months of 2022, more than Dh275 and Dh303 for the same periods in 2021 and 2019, respectively.
Dubai's tourism industry is taking a more “nimble” approach to its pricing and providing cheaper hotel options in response to the challenging global economic conditions that are tightening the budgets of travellers, the emirate's tourism chief said earlier this month.
The appetite for travel to Dubai “is still there”, with the emirate tapping into new and diversified source markets, Issam Kazim, chief executive of the Dubai Department for Tourism and Commerce Marketing, told reporters on the sidelines of the Skift Global Forum East held in Dubai.
However, the emirate is taking a strategic approach by offering the “right price and the right product” to capitalise on that demand, he said.
Upcoming games
SUNDAY
Brighton and Hove Albion v Southampton (5.30pm)
Leicester City v Everton (8pm)
MONDAY
Burnley v Newcastle United (midnight)
Pharaoh's curse
British aristocrat Lord Carnarvon, who funded the expedition to find the Tutankhamun tomb, died in a Cairo hotel four months after the crypt was opened.
He had been in poor health for many years after a car crash, and a mosquito bite made worse by a shaving cut led to blood poisoning and pneumonia.
Reports at the time said Lord Carnarvon suffered from “pain as the inflammation affected the nasal passages and eyes”.
Decades later, scientists contended he had died of aspergillosis after inhaling spores of the fungus aspergillus in the tomb, which can lie dormant for months. The fact several others who entered were also found dead withiin a short time led to the myth of the curse.
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
Indoor cricket World Cup:
Insportz, Dubai, September 16-23
UAE fixtures:
Men
Saturday, September 16 – 1.45pm, v New Zealand
Sunday, September 17 – 10.30am, v Australia; 3.45pm, v South Africa
Monday, September 18 – 2pm, v England; 7.15pm, v India
Tuesday, September 19 – 12.15pm, v Singapore; 5.30pm, v Sri Lanka
Thursday, September 21 – 2pm v Malaysia
Friday, September 22 – 3.30pm, semi-final
Saturday, September 23 – 3pm, grand final
Women
Saturday, September 16 – 5.15pm, v Australia
Sunday, September 17 – 2pm, v South Africa; 7.15pm, v New Zealand
Monday, September 18 – 5.30pm, v England
Tuesday, September 19 – 10.30am, v New Zealand; 3.45pm, v South Africa
Thursday, September 21 – 12.15pm, v Australia
Friday, September 22 – 1.30pm, semi-final
Saturday, September 23 – 1pm, grand final
Red flags
- Promises of high, fixed or 'guaranteed' returns.
- Unregulated structured products or complex investments often used to bypass traditional safeguards.
- Lack of clear information, vague language, no access to audited financials.
- Overseas companies targeting investors in other jurisdictions - this can make legal recovery difficult.
- Hard-selling tactics - creating urgency, offering 'exclusive' deals.
Courtesy: Carol Glynn, founder of Conscious Finance Coaching
About RuPay
A homegrown card payment scheme launched by the National Payments Corporation of India and backed by the Reserve Bank of India, the country’s central bank
RuPay process payments between banks and merchants for purchases made with credit or debit cards
It has grown rapidly in India and competes with global payment network firms like MasterCard and Visa.
In India, it can be used at ATMs, for online payments and variations of the card can be used to pay for bus, metro charges, road toll payments
The name blends two words rupee and payment
Some advantages of the network include lower processing fees and transaction costs
Qosty Byogaani
Starring: Hani Razmzi, Maya Nasir and Hassan Hosny
Four stars
Dhadak 2
Director: Shazia Iqbal
Starring: Siddhant Chaturvedi, Triptii Dimri
Rating: 1/5
GAC GS8 Specs
Engine: 2.0-litre 4cyl turbo
Power: 248hp at 5,200rpm
Torque: 400Nm at 1,750-4,000rpm
Transmission: 8-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 9.1L/100km
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh149,900
