Dubai tourism growth slows in first half of 2018

The number of foreigners visiting Dubai, the Gulf’s tourism hub, grew by 0.5 per cent in the first half of 2018, a substantially slower rate than the 10.6 per cent growth recorded a year earlier, official date showed on Wednesday.

Dubai, which has spent billions building attractions including the world’s tallest tower, hosted 8.1 million international overnight tourists in the six months to 30 June, the tourism department said without giving a comparative figure.

It had previously reported 8.06 million tourists for the first half of 2017 which it said constituted an increase of 10.6 per cent year-on-year.

The tourism sector was worth 109 billion dirham ($29.7 billion) at the end of 2017, according to the tourism department. Dubai is seeing a slowdown in some sectors such as real estate after years of strong growth.

India remained Dubai’s top overseas market in 2018, with the number of visitors from there rising 3 per cent to over 1 million in the first six months — compared with an increase of 21 per cent in Indian visitors a year earlier.

The number of Chinese and Russian visitors grew by 9 percent to 453,000 and 74 per cent to 405,000, respectively.

The United Arab Emirates, which Dubai is part of, has relaxed visa rules for Chinese and Russians in recent years in a bid to boost tourism.

Growth in passenger traffic through Dubai’s international airport has fallen to near zero this year, after 15 years of robust increases.