Dubai Reaches a 1 Year Milestone Since It Has Reopened to Foreign Guests

This month, Dubai marks an important date – it has been one year since the emirate reopened its borders for international travelers on July 7, 2020. The pandemic messed the plans of many countries around the world. What year was it for the emirate’s hospitality industry? Did hotels in Dubai get any guests or manage to become profitable? The Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (or simply Dubai Tourism) published a report that casts some light upon the visitor statistics.

According to the report, more than 3.7 million overnight travelers arrived in Dubai during the period from July 2020 to May 2021. This once again proves an important role of Dubai in global tourism. More than 1.7 million visitors out of 3.7 million arrived between July and December 2020, and the remaining 2 million guests visited the city during the first five months of 2021. This proves that tourism rebounds despite the troubles caused by the pandemic. The diversity of source markets is another reason for such a high number of guests during the COVID-19 era. This is a fundamental strength of Dubai. Many destinations that rely primarily on visitors from certain countries faced a drastic decline in the number of tourists.

Despite a decent number of guests, Dubai has remained one of the safest destinations in the world because of its precautionary regime. The city hasn’t dropped its plans to host Expo 2020 and expects to use its high safety standards to ensure security and an enjoyable experience for all guests.

Of course, travel restrictions made it much harder for Dubai hotels to maintain their occupancy levels. India and the UK remained the top source markets for Dubai, followed by Russia, Pakistan, and Egypt. The city also recorded a growing number of guests from certain CIS countries like Ukraine and Kazakhstan, as well as from some East African countries like Sudan and Ethiopia. All these countries have been in the top 15 source markets for the emirate since its reopening in July 2020.

With added domestic demand from Emiratis and expatriates, the occupancy of hotels in Dubai grew from 35% in July 2020 to 58% in May 2021. The occupancy was the highest in December 2020 (69%), followed by strong January 2021 with hotel occupancy of 66%. This made Dubai hotels the second most occupied globally after Singapore and ahead of such prominent tourist destinations as Paris and London.