A total of 17 million tourists visited the UAE in 2013, and this number is expected to rise further with an annual growth rate of 4 per cent till 2023, a report said.

The overall economic impact of the sector is estimated at Dh122.6 billion ($33.3 billion), a 4.5 per cent increase on a year-on-year (Y-o-Y) basis and is nearly 8.5 per cent of the overall GDP, added the analysis from Research Konnection Team, a UAE based market research and business consulting firm.

The industry is headed by Dubai, which is among the top five most visited destinations in the globe. Nevertheless, other destinations such as Abu Dhabi have also made significant progress in the recent past, the report said.

UAE’s strength as a tourist destination could be explained on the backdrop of heightened government investment in the tourism and hospitality industry; world class infrastructure and range of great tourism places; favourable geographic location, which bridges East with West and a robust aviation industry consisting of Emirates, Etihad, Air Arabia and Fly Dubai etc.

The nature of tourism in UAE, in principle at the moment revolves around, leisure, beach, luxury, adventure, retail and business. In addition, strong forays are being made into alternative forms of tourism such as sports, cruise and medical etc.

Market size

In Dubai alone there has been near around 11 million tourists in 2013, whereas in Abu Dhabi the total number of guests is numbered at 2.8 million contributing to a total of 8.8 million nights and revenue of Dh5.5 billion ($1.5 billion).

Interestingly domestic stay also played a crucial role contributing one third of the hotel stay in Abu Dhabi. Among international check-ins, Indians (176,000) followed by Britons (163,000) comprised of the largest number.

Investments

Dubai is building the largest airport in the world, located at the proposed World expo site; which once complete will handle 220 million tourists annually. Parallel to this, an amount of $7.8 billion has been approved, to enhance the capacity of the existing airport to 90 million, a 50 per cent increase.

Massive work is underway in the Dubai Canal Project, which will connect the Business Bay with Arabian Gulf. The overall worth of the project would be around Dh 2 billion and will be comprised of a range of range of luxury residential, retail, restaurants and walkaways.

In July 2014, Dubai has announced the Mall of the World, world’s largest mall, which is expected to be completed by 2024 and once finished, it will host a total of 180 million tourists. The overall project will be built on an area of 8 million sq ft, out of which 3 million sq ft will be dedicated for wellness facilities for medical tourists.

Work is in progress in the Sadiyat Island project, which is mixed use leisure and residential project spread across a large area of near around 291 million sq. ft. Besides, luxury beach villas, the project will also involve a cultural district with state of the art museums, beach parks and a range of hotels and beach resorts.

Government initiative

As travel and tourism comprises of near around 8.5 per cent of the total GDP of the UAE, the overall sector is high up on the agenda of the government. Captured below is the range of activities, which the government authorities are undertaking in the Emirate.

Dubai aligned with its preparation for World Expo 2020 will plans to realize 20 million international tourist by 2020, nearly double from the existing 11 million intake, which it has at the moment.

Along with existing forms of tourism, Government of UAE is taking strong strides towards developing alternative forms of tourism such as medical tourism. For instance, Dubai alone plans to capture 500,000 medical tourists by 2020.

Government in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and other Emirates are undertaking strong initiatives towards marketing itself across international platforms. Dubai has launched a “See you in Dubai” a $20 million campaign, where as Abu Dhabi has plan to launch the largest promotion campaign till date with presence in 24 trade exhibitions and 13 road shows in 34 cities in 25 countries in the year 2015. – TradeArabia News Service