India retains its top spot for tourism in Dubai with 6 lakh visitors

India topped the list of Dubai’s source markets for inbound tourism, with 617,000 tourists from the country visiting the Emirate between January-March 2018, registering an impressive 7 per cent year-on-year increase.

Dubai welcomed almost 4.7 million international overnight tourists, Dubai posted a stable 2 per cent increase in traffic as compared to last year.

Saudi Arabia came in the second position as far as tourist arrivals are concerned. UK and Russia followed the chart , according to a report published by Dubai’s Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (Dubai Tourism).

India helped level out the relatively stable second-placed Saudi Arabia (minus one per cent) and the steeper decline in visitation from third-placed the UK (minus eight per cent). Leading source markets continued to highlight their affinity for Dubai as the top three retained their positions versus 2017.

Russia ended the quarter in fourth place, continuing its upward trajectory by topping the growth charts with a stellar 106 per cent increase over quarter one 2017, delivering 2,59,000 tourists, benefiting from availability of visa-on-arrival facilities for Russian citizens from early last year. Similarly, fifth-placed China also continued to leverage its visa-on-arrival status, delivering 2,58,000 Chinese visitors, up a strong 12 per cent.