Dubai is looking to attract 20 million tourists annually by 2020 according to Helal Saeed Almarri, director-general of the Dubai Tourism and Commerce Marketing, with the country needing to double its hotel room offerings by the end of the decade.
Dubai has so far spent US$110bn (£66.5bn, €79.6bn) to help develop itself into the Middle East’s premier cultural hub, with the country now playing host to a wide array of premium hospitality, retail and attractions-based developments.
In 2013 the country brought in 11 million tourists – an improvement of 11 per cent from 2012. Tourism in the country accounted for around 20 per cent of Dubai’s GDP in 2013, with an increase expected to come in the region of between seven and nine per cent through to 2020.
Leading developers in the country are expecting a further surge in visitor numbers ahead of the Expo 2020, which will see Dubai take centre stage as it attempts to offer a progressive carbon-neutral exhibition.
However, Almarri has stressed that a surge in development in the country is not purely related to the event, also stating that increased levels of development will not result in Dubai being abandoned following the Expo.
“None of these rooms are being built specifically for the Expo or any one event,” he told
Bloomberg. “They’re being built purely because of the core tourism numbers. Dubai won’t turn into a ghost town after the Expo.
“We have a very fragmented source markets, no single market exceeds 10 per cent of tourists. That is obviously very positive for us, because it allows us to circumvent any anomalies in terms of economies or currencies.”
Given the expected increase in numbers coming to visit Dubai, the country’s officials have also relaxed laws to benefit development prospects, with a more concerted focus on creating affordable offerings.
Over 17.5 million people are expected to come to visit Expo 2020 in Dubai, or up to 300,000 every day.
To meet the needs of this tourist boom – 70 per cent of which will come from outside of the UAE – Dubai’s Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DTCM) expects to have to double Dubai’s hotel inventory to around 164,000 hotel and hotel apartment rooms within the next seven years.
