The emirate is setting its sights on surpassing last year\u2019s 18.7 million visitors, as traveller demand increasingly shifts toward experience-led tourism<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dubai is on track to achieve a record number of visitors this year, and the emirate\u2019s tourism authority is pulling out all stops to make it happen. From entering new source markets to focusing on\u00a0experiential tourism, the Department of Economy and Tourism (DET) is working hard towards surpassing last year\u2019s tourism numbers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe aim is to break the\u00a018.7 million record\u00a0that we had last year,\u201d said Shahab Shayan, Regional Director Asia Pacific International Operations for Dubai Corporation for Tourism and Commerce Marketing. \u201cOne of the key trends that we are seeing is revolving around experiences. Travellers are looking to build memories with their loved ones.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to Shahab, today\u2019s travellers are increasingly motivated by sustainability and the desire for unique selling points of their travel destinations. \u201cTravellers are always looking to do something different that they can’t do somewhere else,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He was speaking to \u0635\u062d\u064a\u0641\u0629 \u0627\u0644\u062e\u0644\u064a\u062c \u062a\u0627\u064a\u0645\u0632<\/em> on the sidelines of the World Travel Market (WTM) in London on Tuesday (November 4). Dubai is participating in the market with 71 partners, representing government agencies, airlines, hotels and attractions. By the end of September this year, the total number of visitors to Dubai stood at 13.95 million, up from 13.29 million during the same period last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n According to Shahab, DET had wanted to showcase Dubai as a \u201cyear-round city\u201d and had three main targets- increase overnight visitation, length of stay, and repeat visitors. Currently Dubai has an impressive 25 percent of its tourists coming back to emirate repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThere’s always something to look forward to,\u201d he said. \u201cWe currently just launched the\u00a0Dubai Fitness Challenge, which has gone global.\u00a0There was a huge post about it in Spain in the Madrid stand before the match. We have the Dubai Shopping Festival, and of course the Dubai Summer Surprises.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Currently DET operates in 80 markets, with over 3000 partners. According to Shahab, the most important source markets continue to be India, UK, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Russia. Approximately 1.4 million visitors came to Dubai from India in 2024 with UK following closely behind with 1.1 million visitors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To sustain momentum, DET is looking to emerging markets. \u201cWe’ve looked at Vietnam as being a new potential for us,\u201d said Shahab. \u201cTurkey is a new market that we began a few years back. Eastern Europe is a new region for us overall and we’re putting a lot of effort in Romania and the likes. We also have other parts of Africa that we are looking at. Egypt is one that we’ve been operating in the last few years very heavily and has huge potential.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Rather than targeting a set number of new markets each year, Shayan explained that DET takes a data-driven approach. \u201cWe look at what sort of segments are we going to focus on and what’s the return on investment,\u201d he said. \u201cSo there’s a different criteria for each of the markets that we look at.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n All seven emirates are participating in this year\u2019s World Travel Market, each presenting its distinct attractions while promoting the UAE as a unified destination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe seven emirates are like seven distinct experiences and stories woven together by a common identity and purpose in the UAE,\u201d said Mansoor Abdullah Khalfan Juma Abulhoul, the UAE\u2019s ambassador to the UK, speaking to media at the DET stand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cYou’re also seeing very innovative experiences- a nation that is bringing forward its history and culture and great experience for people who visit. Each emirate offers something unique and this is something distinct that as a country, we can say to the world to come to us,” he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Source: Khaleej times<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Published: 4 November 2025<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The emirate is setting its sights on surpassing last year\u2019s 18.7 million visitors, as traveller demand increasingly shifts toward experience-led tourism Dubai is on track to achieve a record number of visitors this year, and the emirate\u2019s tourism authority is pulling out all stops to make it happen. From entering new source markets to focusing […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":35359,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1057,1056,5422,2827,5421],"class_list":["post-35358","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-dubai-attractions","tag-dubai-tourism","tag-travel-dubai","tag-uae-travel","tag-visit-dubai"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/elite-bricks.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35358","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/elite-bricks.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/elite-bricks.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elite-bricks.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elite-bricks.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35358"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/elite-bricks.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35358\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35360,"href":"https:\/\/elite-bricks.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35358\/revisions\/35360"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elite-bricks.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35359"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/elite-bricks.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35358"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elite-bricks.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35358"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elite-bricks.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35358"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Year-round destination<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Expanding source markets<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Unified destination<\/h3>\n\n\n\n