The tiny Gulf emirate that packs a big punch continues to defy expectations as it reported welcoming 1.67 million international visitors in the first third of 2021, according to the Dubai Tourism Annual Visitor Report 2020.
While Indians made up nearly 30% of those arrival numbers, visitors from Russia and Eastern Europe made up just more than one-fifth of arrivals and those from Western Europe slightly under that same amount.
However, even in pandemic-stricken 2020, Dubai still managed to increase its percentage share of the global travel market by 0.3% compared 2019 by welcoming a total of 5.51 million visitors by the end of the year.
And while unprecedented travel restrictions and temporary airline groundings depressed the numbers of international arrivals, 3.5 million local UAE residents vacationed in Dubai between May and December of 2020, a more than 50% increase over the emirate’s 2019 domestic tourism numbers.
