The number of international overnight tourists has spiked to 8.36 million in the first half of 2019, an increase of 3 percent from the same period last year, according to data released by the Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (Dubai Tourism).
The data further showed a change in tourist markets where the number of tourists from Oman, China and Philippines increased, and tourists from markets such as India and UK declined, owing to the stronger dollar to which UAE currency is pegged.
There was an 11 percent year-on-year increase in visitors from China, to over 500,000, 28 percent from Oman to close to 500,000 and 29 percent up from the Philippines to over 200,000.
The number of visitors from India declined by 8 percent to just under a million and by 2 percent from the UK.
Speaking on its strong globally diversified market strategy, Saeed Almarri, Director General of Dubai Tourism says, "Designed to counter unforeseen macroeconomic variables faced by the global travel ecosystem and mitigate impediments associated with over-reliance on any one market or region, we have been long-standing proponents of a globally diversified market strategy — which continues to support our resilience as a sector."
Though it dropped in numbers in the first half of 2019, India is still the leading visitor market for Dubai, with Saudi Arabia in second position with over three quarters of a million visitors between January and June, the UK in third and China and Oman in fourth and fifth spots respectively.