2.6m Indians visit UAE in 2017

The United Arab Emirates recently conducted a three-city roadshow in India with a plan to surpass the three million tourist arrival mark from India.

Hazel Jain

The National Council of Tourism & Antiquities, United Arab Emirates, recently organised a three-city roadshow in India under the theme ‘Visit UAE’ starting in Bengaluru, moving on to Ahmedabad and concluding in Mumbai. The UAE delegation included local tourism authorities, national airlines, prominent DMCs, tourist attractions, hotels and the Dubai Police. 

HE Dr Ahmed Al Banna, UAE Ambassador to India, said, “Tourism is an important sector for us. It contributes about 18 per cent to our GDP and we want to increase this percentage. More than 55 per cent of Indian travellers are travelling outside India transit through UAE, whether it is Abu Dhabi or Dubai or Sharjah. We are therefore trying to add more air capacity between India and the UAE and look forward to an Open Sky policy between the two countries.”

According to UAE’s tourism department, the number of visitors from India increased from 2.3 million visitors in 2016 to approximately 2.6 million in 2017, indicating a growth rate of up to 12.8 per cent.  Saleh Mohamed Al Geziry, Director General, Department of Tourism Development, Government of Ajman, said, “UAE received more than 2.6 million tourists from India in 2017, a 13 per cent growth from the previous year. We want to increase this percentage further.” Tourists and visitors from India represent 10 per cent of the total number of visitors to the UAE recorded in 2016, which reached 24.9 million. Both countries are linked via 1,065 flights per week.

India is a big market for UAE

Omar Bani Hamour, Marketing & Exhibitions Co-ordinator, Fujairah Tourism & Antiquities Authority, Government of Fujairah, United Arab Emirates, who was part of delegation said that India is one of the biggest international markets in the world for not just the emirate but the entire UAE. “We want to increase the numbers of Indian arrivals further. We are still new to this market but the visits have showed that the numbers from India have been increasing. We will come to India every year to push our products. We also have a plan to open a representative office in India.” Fujairah has 38 hotels with a total of 3,000 rooms which will go up with new projects in the pipeline.