Dubai tourism shines in 2011

Dubai has further consolidated its position on the world tourism map with its hotels and hotel apartments posting impressive all-round performance in hotel guest numbers, cruise passengers, revenues, guest nights and average length of stay in 2011.

The stellar performance of the hospitality industry in the Arabian Gulf region's tourism hub speaks volumes about the success of the aggressive marketing and promotional initiatives conducted by the Dubai Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DTCM) to boost the tourism industry's growth in one of the most challenging environment facing the global travel and tourism business.

The results were released on Wednesday at the ITB-2012 in Berlin where Dubai tourism industry is making a strong presence.

DTCM Director General, Mr. Khalid A bin Sulayem, said: " We have been successful in boosting the number of tourists to Dubai due to our initiatives to enhance our position in established markets and tap new and emerging tourism source markets. The substantial gains by hotels and hotel apartments reflect, once again, the vibrancy and dynamism of the tourism industry in the emirate."

The contribution of cruise tourism to Dubai tourism industry's growth has also been enlarged with an increase in the number of cruise passengers last year.

He said the department has intensified its efforts to build on the success achieved last year through a variety of measures, including enhanced networking with the travel and tourism industry in different parts of the world with the help of the network of 18 overseas representative offices operated by the DTCM.
 

The marketing and promotion drive for the year started in Australia and New Zealand which promises to yield significant results in the remainder of the year and beyond, he added.
 

The department plans to participate in over 25 major travel and tourism exhibitions across the world in addition to holding Dubai workshops in 10 countries during this year.

He complimented the private sector for its invaluable contribution in the success story of Dubai's vibrant tourism industry.

Hotel guests and cruise passengers

Dubai hosted an impressive 9.30 million hotel guests and cruise passengers in 2011, up by 10 per cent compared with the previous year's 8.49 million. Out of this, 7,262,730 guests stayed with hotels, up from 6,561,999 recorded in 2012.

Guest nights
Guest nights rose to 32,848,190 in 2011, an increase of 23 per cent compared with the previous year. Hotels contributed to 23,266,875 guest nights. Hotel apartments witnessed an increase of over two million guests with these properties contributing 9.5 million guest nights last year as against 7.5 million guest nights in 2010.

Average Length of Stay
Similarly, the average length of stay stood 3.6 days, up by 12 per cent compared with the previous year.
 

Revenues
Dubai hotel establishments' revenues were close to Dh16 billion last year, an increase of 20 per cent over 2010 revenues. Out of this Dh13.6 billion were of the hotels, up considerably compared with 2012's Dh11.2 billion. Hotel apartments too recorded considerable gains by posting Dh2.2 billion last year, up from Dh1.9 billion in 2010.

The impressive performance by hotels and hotel apartments were recorded despite a five per cent increase in the number of hotel rooms and hotel apartment flats which stood last year at 53,828 rooms and 21,015 hotel apartment flats. However, the number of hotels and hotel apartments last year was 575, up from 573 in 2010.
 

Top 20 source markets
In 2011, Saudi Arabia emerged as the top source market for Dubai's tourism industry with 873,152 guests, followed by India (702,142), UK (643,196), Iran (476,708) and the US (462,653). Germany ranked sixth with 275,663 guests, while Kuwait and Russia scooped seventh and eighth positions with 273,253 and 255,746 guests, respectively. Oman emerged 9th on the list with 223,993 guests followed by Pakistan (221,374), China (193,791), Australia (179,214), France (152,439), Egypt (149,130), Philippines (125,408), Qatar (122,319), Italy (105,523), Jordan (95,818), Bahrain (91,238) and Lebanon (90,984).
 

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