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Dubai hotels welcome 11m guests

Dubai, March 5, 2014

Dubai’s hotels have welcomed more than 11 million guests in 2013, an increase of just over one million over the previous year, said a report.

A 50-member delegation from the tourism industry in the UAE are set to promote Dubai’s diverse destination offering to key international buyers at the five-day International Tourism Bourse (ITB) Berlin, which starts today (March 5), said the Emirates News Agency (WAM) report.

The Dubai Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DTCM) released these figures ahead of this participation. It also showed increases across key indicators such as hotel establishment revenues and room occupancy.

The emirate’s top 10 guests source markets remained unchanged for the most part, with some changes in positioning. It included Saudi Arabia, India, UK, US, Russia, Kuwait, Germany, Oman, Iran and China.

Meanwhile, the Australian market experienced the most growth, with numbers up by 39 percent from more than 193,000 in 2012 to more than 269,000 in 2013, which was largely attributed to the partnership between Emirates Airline and Qantas from April resulting in increased flight volumes between Dubai and Australia.

"The strong growth shown in hotel establishment guests in 2013 is a positive first step on our journey to 2020,” Helal Saeed Almarri, director-general of DTCM, was quoted as saying.

The revenues for hoteliers and hotel apartment operators saw significant growth with total revenues up by 16.1 per cent reaching Dh21.84 billion ($5.9 billion) for 2013, said the report.

“In order to provide accommodation for our targeted visitor numbers for 2020, we estimate that we need a total of between 140,000 and 160,000 rooms and will work closely with the investment industry to make this happen," said Almarri.

In addition to the stated need to develop more hotels, broadening the range of accommodation offerings is one of the focuses needed in order to attract a wider market of visitors, he added. - TradeArabia News Service




Tags: hotel | Dubai | Berlin | Visitor | ITB |

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