Emirate among top 10 popular choices for family travel among UAE residents
Dubai is not just a financial hub but also a tourist capital, attracting a large number of visitors from different parts of the world – especially from the region – as the emirate received 4.1 million visitors in the first quarter of 2016, a 5.1 per cent increase over the same period last year.
This reflects in the latest research released by travel search website Wego, stating that Dubai is the second most attractive and popular destination among Saudis for family travel (after Istanbul) – thanks to large and modern shopping malls, variety of hotels, fun-filled family events and festivals across the year that the emirate hosts.
Dubai Tourism and Commerce Marketing figures showed that during the first quarter of 2016, visitors from Saudi Arabia grew 14 per cent to 476,000 – making it the number one source country.
There is no doubt that the emirate’s shopping malls, cinemas and theme parks are a huge draw card, said Mamoun Hmedan, Managing Director of Wego Middle East, North Africa and India.
“Dubai is a great city for families and many will now also align their travel dates with major events hosted more frequently in the Emirate,” he added.
It’s not just the foreign tourists that are a major draw to the emirate, even the UAE residents also prefer to spend their vacations locally (read Dubai).
Wego’s data showed that the emirate of Dubai is among the top ten – sixth to be precise – popular family destinations for the UAE residents planning to spend their summer holidays this year.
In order to give fillip to tourism sector, Dubai is also eyeing to woo medical tourists from the region and the Asia Pacific region. According to Dubai Health Authority estimates, a total of 1.3 million medical tourists are projected to visit Dubai in 2021.
In 2015, 630,831 medical tourists visited Dubai’s 26 hospitals, out of which 332,472 came from within the UAE and 298,359 (46 per cent) came from abroad.
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