Dubai witnessed 15 per cent growth in tourist arrivals from India in 2017, hosting 2.1 million visitors, retaining top spot as the source market. It also became the first country to cross the 2 million mark in a single year, according to the latest data published by Dubais Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (Dubai Tourism). The growth is mainly due to the success of Dubai Tourism's ongoing collaboration with Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan in the 'BeMyGuest' campaign. Overall, Dubai recorded 6.2 per cent year-on-year increase in international overnight visitation in 2017, propelling the emirate's momentum towards its 2020 goal of welcoming 20 million visitors per year by the start of the next decade.
A total of 15.79 million tourists visited Dubai last year. "With Dubai firmly consolidating its position as the fourth most visited city globally, we remain confident that our performance will enable us to successfully attain our goals of becoming the most visited city as well as being the most recommended with highest number of repeat Dubai loyalists," Dubai Tourism director general Helal Saeed Almarri said. India was followed by Saudi Arabia (KSA) in the second place, contributing a total of 1.53 million tourists last year. UK at number three delivered 1.27 million travellers, rising 2 per cent over 2016. China was at fifth-place with 7,64,000 tourists, up 41 per cent, while Russia with 530,000 visitors was at eighth place, recording a stellar 121 per cent increase over the previous year. Both markets benefited from easier access following the introduction of visa-on-arrival facilities to Chinese and Russian citizens in late 2016 and early 2017, respectively.
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