The CEO of the Dubai Tourism and Commerce Marketing Department announced that Dubai received 5.5 million international visitors in 2020 and 1.26 million in the first quarter of 2021, according to "Reuters." Additionally, the Ministry of Economy confirmed that the tourism sector in the UAE performed remarkably during 2020, despite the repercussions of the COVID-19 pandemic. The tourism sector was the least affected and the fastest to recover from the crisis, which caused a significant decline in global tourist movements by 74% and by 76% in the Middle East region.
The number of overnight stays in the 1,089 establishments, which provide around 180,000 hotel rooms, reached approximately 54.2 million nights, with an average stay of 3.7 nights per guest and revenue amounting to 318.5 dirhams per room. Meanwhile, domestic tourism contributed 41 billion dirhams to the national economy last year, with expectations to double this figure in the coming years.
Hotels in the country achieved the second highest occupancy rates in the world after China, at 54.7%, despite a global occupancy rate drop to 37% and 43% in the Middle East, according to the Emirates News Agency. According to official statistics released by the World Tourism Organization and the UAE Tourism Council, which was established by the Cabinet in January under the chairmanship of Ahmed Belhoul Al Falasi, Minister of State for Entrepreneurship and SMEs, the number of guests in hotel establishments reached 14.8 million.
