" The introduction of the Attractions Marketplace marks an important step towards providing the city’s attractions and experiences with the power to market themselves more effectively to a wider audience. The native, purpose-built platform aims to bring this diversity and accessibility into focus, with the online portal facilitating the interaction between all stakeholders to amplify Dubai's reach globally. It will also create a repository of attractions with real-time availability and connectivity, making it an effective one-stop-shop for global resellers.
His Excellency Helal Saeed Al Marri
Director General, Dubai Tourism
The WTTC reveals that in 2015, travel and tourism directly supported 330,000 jobs (5.7 percent of total employment). This was expected to rise by 3.8 percent in 2016 and 4.3 percent per annum to 520,000 jobs (or 7.6 percent of total employment) in 2026.
An estimated $23 billion is expected to be generated between 2015 and 2021, which is 24% of the gross domestic product. Helping to create these numbers are the estimated 277,000 jobs that would be created between 2014 and 2020. 40% of these are expected to be in the tourism and travel sector alone.
Leisure travel spending is expected to grow by 4.4 percent in 2016 to AED102.2 billion ($27.82 billion), and jump by 5.4 percent to AED173.2 billion ($47.15 billion) in 2026.
With the 2020 World Expo looking to put Dubai in the world spotlight, Dubai’s progress and future growth seem to be endless. With Dubai’s already proven success in the tourism sector, the Expo will look to see Dubai expanding to handle the huge influx of new tourists and visitors.
Leisure travel spending (inbound and domestic) generated 79 percent of direct travel and tourism GDP in 2015 or AED97.9 billion ($26.65 billion), compared to 21 percent for business travel spending or AED26 billion ($7.08 billion).
Dubai hotel stays are not the cheapest in the world, but prices are about to increase further in the run up to the 2020 Expo with the introduction of a new tourist tax. The new tourism tax charge is set from between Dh7 and Dh20 per room per night and applies to hotel rooms and apartments.
Charges are broken down into Dh20 for 5 star hotels, Dh15 for 4 star hotels, Dh10 for 2 and 3 star, and Dh7 for low end budget hotel accommodation.
From travel logistics to new attractions, Dubai’s development projects will certainly be on display. One should also look to see these developments not only benefit Dubai’s run up to the Expo, but to benefit Dubai’s future for decades to come
However, restaurants and leisure industries benefit from tourism too and therefore supports jobs in both.
Therefore, in 2015, the total number of jobs the sector supported amounted to 9.6 percent of the UAE’s total workforce (557,000 jobs). This is expected to rise by 3.8 percent in 2016 to 578,000 jobs and by 3.9 percent per annum to 850,000 jobs in 2026, some 12.4 percent of the total.
The individual emirates within the UAE have all set out ambitious arrivals targets.
leading the pack is Dubai, which aims to attract 20 million arrivals by 2020.
During the same year, Dubai will host the World Expo, marking the first time the famous event has been staged in the Middle East. At least 25 million visitors are anticipated, more than 70 percent of whom will hail from outside the UAE.
By 2026, the number of international tourists visiting the UAE will hit 30.94 million and they will spend AED167.7 billion ($45.66 billion), the WTTC reveals.
This represents a 5.4 percent per annum increase in terms of spend over the next decade.
2015, visitors to the UAE spent AED95.5 billion ($26 billion). This was expected to grow by 3.3 percent last year when 15.76 million international tourist arrivals were anticipated.
Business travel spending is expected to grow by 0.3 percent in 2016 to AED26.1 billion ($7.11 billion), and nudge up by 4.4 percent annually to AED40.3 billion ($10.97 billion) in 2026
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