Dubai has seen 119% growth in Chinese Visitors since 2014

Dubai News

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With Chinese president, Xi Jinping set to visit the UAE later this week, Dubai Tourism released a report on the number of Chinese tourists in the last year. The report showed continued growth in visitors from China and a massive increase from 2014.

Since 2014, there has been a whopping 119% increase in visitors. Meanwhile, there was a massive increase of 41.4% from 2016 to 2017.

The considerable bust of visitors was combined with some key deals signed with Chinese companies and investors. Dubai Tourism has made it clear that its focus remains on its fourth top source market, ie. China.

The number of visitors from China has been growing this year as well. Reports say that the first five months of 2018 saw a record 400,547 visitors from the Asian country. This growth is expected to continue until the end of 2018.

Ahead of the Chinese president's visit, Helal Saeed Almarri, the Director-General of Dubai Tourism said, "Our approach to engaging Chinese tourists is two-fold, with landmark partnerships, investments and marketing activities undertaken in 48 cities across China, partnered with a city-level China-readiness strategy in Dubai to enhance the experience of Chinese tourists. The introduction of visa-on-arrival for Chinese nationals in 2016, working in conjunction with the increase in air capacity by national carriers from China – currently standing at 30 flights a week, a 13 per cent increase in non-stop seat capacity in 2017- has also contributed to rapid growth."

A 24-hour Chinese radio station was also launched earlier this week in Dubai. The city is doing all it can to be a home-away-from-home for the visitors from the Asian nation.

China is said to be the world’s number one source market for tourism. There were reportedly 129 million outbound trips from China in 2017, according to research by Ctrip.