A whopping one million Indians visit Dubai in 2019
The United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) estimates that India will account for 50 million outbound tourists by 2020.
Photo: Dubai Tourism
By IAR Desk
A whopping 997,000 visitors from India were amongst the 8.36 million international overnight visitor that visited Dubai in the first six months of 2019. This was the data that Dubai Tourism has released, reported Indo-Asian News Service.
The number of international tourists to Dubai grew three per cent compared to the same period last year.
From focused “family” or “couple” oriented promotions to Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan-led global #BeMyGuest campaign, Dubai has invested heavily on promoting tourism.
Accordiing to Dubai’s Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing, the travel share of Indian families with children rose by a substantial 10 percentage points from 24 to 34 per cent.
“Tourism is one of the cornerstones of Dubai’s diversified economic growth, and we measure success based on our ability to aggressively advance towards our goal to be the number one most visited and most preferred city,” Helal Saeed Almarri, Director General of Dubai Tourism said in a statement.
“The consequent rise in value creation opportunities, and more inclusive sector participation are core priorities, as we equally strive to sustainably grow GDP contribution.
“Our first half results are a particularly encouraging reflection of our progress towards this ambition and underline the effectiveness of our diversified market outreach with holistic ‘awareness to booking’ cycle content amplification and audience delivery, through a deeply networked ecosystem of global partners, industry stakeholders and government enablers,” Almarri added.
Indians are increasingly taking to foreign shores for their holidays, with spend on travel topping the list of activities for which residents have purchased foreign currency in the second quarter of 2019.
Spending on international travel amounted to about $1.6 billion in the second quarter 2019, of the total of $4.2bn purchased by Indians during this quarter, according to data collated by Reserve Bank of India.
This is a 60 percent jump from the $1bn which Indians spent for their holidays abroad in the same time in 2018.
Resident Indians are allowed to purchase up to $250,000 in a year for their overseas related expenses such as travel, education, purchase of property, gifts, investments and maintenance of close relatives.
In second quarter of the total $13.8bn purchased by Indians, $4.8bn (35 percent) was for travel, while $3.6bn (26 percent) was spent on education, reported Arabian Business.
Dubai and a few more cities in the UAE, besides Europe, the US and the UK, are among the top destinations for Indian tourists, according to tourism industry officials.
The United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) estimates that India will account for 50 million outbound tourists by 2020.
“Despite the slowdown due to rupee fluctuations, the Indian outbound numbers have been growing at an average annual growth rate of 10-12 percent over the last seven years. The market for travel and tourism in India is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of around 7.23 percent during 2016-2021,” UNWTO said in a recent report.
For many Indians, domestic travel is as expensive as traveling to numerous foreign destinations, like those in the Gulf or in Southeast Asia, and thereby preferable, as traveling abroad is also a reflection of social status.
