Following Abu Dhabi and Qatar’s record-breaking announcements, Dubai has just confirmed it too had its biggest year in tourism in 2024.
Dubai’s Department of Economy and Tourism (DET) crunched the numbers and revealed that the city welcomed 18.72 million international overnight visitors last year. That’s 9% higher than the previous record of 17.15 million in 2023.
The biggest growth in tourism last year compared to the prior year, came from travellers originating in Northeast and Southeast Asia (24%), followed by Africa (20%) and Eastern Europe (16%). Visitation from Western Europe was also up by 14% and maintained its position as the number one source of international visitation for Dubai.
Dubai’s tourism success was celebrated by all, including His Highness Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Defence, and Chairman of The Executive Council of Dubai.
His Highness attributed the spike in tourists to actions being implanted by the Dubai Economic Agenda D23 which aims to transform the city into a global hub for business and leisure.
“This achievement is the result of visionary leadership and strong collaboration between the public and private sectors,” he said. “Through strategic innovation, infrastructure development, talent acquisition, and market diversification, we will continue to enhance Dubai’s competitiveness, attract more international visitors, and enhance tourism’s role as a key driver of economic growth.”
With that said, let’s take a deeper dive into some of the factors that drove Dubai’s tourism success in 2024:
Keeping travel agents in the loop
Education and keeping Travel Agents – both locally and internationally – in the know contributed to Dubai’s tourism success last year.
In 2024, the online training platform ‘Dubai Way’ launched to offer autism and sensory awareness training for the city’s tourist-facing workforce aka Travel Agents and beyond. Dubai’s leaders also launched courses in inclusive service, accessible tourism and sustainable tourism.
New hotel openings
Last year, Dubai opened an average of two hotels every month during the first six months of 2024, adding an extra 2,700 rooms to the city’s existing sizeable portfolio. By the end of the year, Dubai’s hotel inventory comprised of 154,016 total, up 150,291 rooms in 2023.
High-profile hotel openings acted a draw cards for luxury tourists, including the AED1 billion Marbella Resort Hotel which opened in July, and the Baccarat Hotel in Downtown Dubai.
This investment in accommodation was a contributing factor in the city’s performance by meeting demand for more occupancy from both visitors and stakeholders.
Despite the extra beds, Dubai’s key hotel metrics remained strong last year, with an average occupancy of 78.2%, up from 77.4% the prior year. The number of occupied room nights jumped to 43.03 million, representing a 3% increase compared to the 41.70 million in 2023.
The average daily rate that visitors were paying for accommodation in Dubai last year, sat at AED538, only a slight increase on AED536 last year.
Tuning into reality TV
Research recently revealed that streaming content is one of the fastest growing methods for destinations to reach mass audiences, and Dubai hasn’t hesitated at all in jumping into action.
TV shows such as Netflix’s Dubai Bling and Love is Blind, Habibi, opened the destination to millions of tourists around the world, and in some cases, presented the destination to potential new residents.
Outside of reality TV, DET developed relationships with global personalities such as Colombian singer J Balvin, who filmed two film clips in the city and featured in a Visit Dubai promotional video which generated 4.6 million views on less than eight months.
Achieving global accolades
‘World’s Leading Shopping Destination’, ‘World’s Leading Exhibition Destination’, and ‘One of the safest cities in the world’. There’s also home to ‘World’s Leading Cruise Port’ as well as ‘World’s Leading Airport’.
Recognition for Dubai didn’t fall short in 2024 but was instead flooding in and boosting the city’s visitation appeal amongst international travellers.
DET said these global accolades are part of the D33 Agency and boosts Dubai’s reputation as a secure and accessible destination.
If that wasn’t impressive enough, Dubai was also named the number one city for cleanliness by the Global Power City Index – for the fifth consecutive year.
Creative campaigns
DET’s staff kept their thinking caps on year-round, and came up with a number of effective tourist campaigns that helped draw in a crowd.
Notable global campaigns included ‘Dubai, What’s Not To Love?’, which positioned the city as a destination of choice for winter. There’s also the latest ‘If You Go, You Know’ campaign that showcases Dubai’s residents and their favourite parts of the city.
In 2024, DET also produced tailor campaigns for specific markets such as the ‘Dubai: A Whole New You’ aimed an Indian travellers, and ‘Dubai: Who’s Ready?’ targeting Korean holidaymakers.
Kept the party going year-round
From trade shows to industry exhibitions and MICE gatherings, Dubai’s calendar of events was FULL last year and maintained the flow of incoming international business travellers.
Some of the city’s biggest events in 2024 included the eighth edition of the Dubai Fitness Challenge, which attracted a best-ever 2.7 million participants, and the Dubai Shopping Festival, which celebrated its landmark 30th edition.
Industry event GITEX Global attracted 200,000 attendees last year, the highest in its 44-year history, while Gulfood reached 150,000 attendees, and Arabian Travel Market topped 46,000 attendees.
These figures are expected to rise in the coming years, with Dubai securing 437 future events.
