(MENAFN- Khaleej Times) Dubai recorded almost two-digit surge in visitors and remarkable surge in tourism revenues in the first nine months, sending a clear signal that the "20-million visitors by 2020" target set by one of the world's most sought-after tourist destination is right on track to realise or even exceed the goal.
Between January and September 2013, hotels in Dubai welcomed over 7.9 million visitors, a 9.8 per cent year-on-year increase, and recorded over 17 per cent revenue growth at Dh15.33 billion.
Dubai's Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing, or DTCM, said on the sidelines of World Travel Market in London, that the visitors traffic showed increases across hotel establishment guests, room occupancy levels, hotel and hotel apartment revenues and average length of stay, all key factors in order for Dubai to achieve its Tourism Vision for 2020.
DTCM said in a statement that during the first nine months hotel room occupancy averaged 78.6 per cent over the nine-month period, up 3.1 per cent compared to the same period in 2012 and hotel apartment occupancy also saw steady growth, up 7.3 per cent to 81 per cent, compared with 75.5 per cent in the first nine months of 2012.
"Increasing the length of stay has been identified as a key driver of tourism growth within the Tourism Vision for 2020 and these results were also positive with the average length of stay across hotels and hotel apartments between January and September rising 3.5 per cent year-on-year to 3.9 days," DTCM said.
The hotel sector also witnessed significant growth in revenues, with total revenues for the first nine months of the year up by 17.1 per cent, reaching Dh15.33 billion. Total guest nights also recorded similarly impressive rises, up 13.7 per cent to 30,874,916 from 27,163,974 in the first nine months of 2012.
Helal Saeed Almarri, Director-General of DTCM, said: "These latest visitor figures show a steady and consistent increase across the key indicators that are critical in order to achieve our Tourism Vision for 2020. With guest numbers, room nights and length of stay all increasing, we have made positive early steps which demonstrate that while our aims are ambitious, they are achievable."
Almarri argued that a 17.1 per cent increase in revenues for hotels was particularly encouraging, especially given the number of new establishments, which have entered the market this year. "This demonstrates that Dubai continues to represent a major opportunity for hotel developers and that we must continue to work to ensure that supply is meeting demand. DTCM and our governmental partners are working on a number of measures in this regard, including the incentive we recently announced to encourage the development of more mid-range hotels," he said. In 2013, Dubai boosted its hotel room with the opening of several new hotels. These included the Barjeel Heritage Guest House in Bur Dubai; Mövenpick Hotel Apartments The Square, Sofitel Dubai the Palm; Conrad Dubai; Oberoi Dubai; Anantara Dubai Palm Jumeirah Resort & Spa and, just last month, Mövenpick Hotel Jumeirah Lakes Towers A number are due to open before the end of the year, including Novotel Dubai Al Barsha; and Raviz Centerpoint in Bur Dubai.
Saudi Arabia, India, the UK, USA, Russia, Kuwait, Germany, Oman, China and Iran made up the top 10 source markets for January to September 2013, mostly unchanged compared to 2012.
Saudi Arabia, Dubai's primary source market, once again experienced the most growth with visitor numbers increasing by 24.8 per cent to 1,052,353.
Ranked 2nd, India continued to show strong increases in visitor numbers with visitors up by 15 per cent. Other markets that experienced strong growth include Australia - which saw a 34.9 per cent from 144,121 for the first nine months of 2012 to 194,448 for the same period of this year €“ and China, which had an 11 per cent from 181,180 to 201,036.
Almarri said Dubai's visitors come from a broad range of markets from countries. "At DTCM we capitalise on this with a network of 20 overseas offices which enables us to promote Dubai in virtually every major market across the globe," he said.
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