Russia Is Now Dubai's No. 2 Source Market

Dubai welcomed 1.47 million overnight visitors in January as Russia went on to be the second largest tourism source market for the emirate. Registering a 63 percent increase over 2022, for the emirate, 115,000 Russians visited Dubai for tourism. The highest number of international guests were from India at 186,000, while the third-biggest source market was Saudi Arabia with 98,000 visitors. Skift had earlier mentioned in an article how Dubai has proved to be a safe haven for sanction-hit Russians wanting to flee the country. During the year following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, air traffic between Moscow and Dubai grew at a whopping 228 percent compared to pre-pandemic, according to travel analytics firm ForwardKeys. While Dubai's 1.47 million overnight visitors in January is lower compared to 2019's 1.6 million, it is 50 percent above January 2022's 980,000 visitors.

Business travel spend in the Middle East and Africa (MEA) is expected to return to pre-pandemic levels by 2024, according to the Global Business Travel Association (GBTA). The association in its most recent Business Travel Index Outlook annual forecast and outlook (2022), noted that business travel in the region is recovering more rapidly than in any other region, having achieved 86 percent of its 2019 levels during 2022, outperforming the recovery in Americas, Asia Pacific and Europe. According to the forecast, business travel spending reached $933 billion globally in 2022, 65 percent of the $1.4 trillion business pre-pandemic travel spend, with the Middle East and Africa region accounting for $23 billion or approximately 2.5 percent of overall spending within the sector.

With Egypt expecting record tourist numbers this year and aiming to attract 30 million visitors by 2028, Tourism Minister Ahmed Issa said the country looks to boost tourism by expanding flight capacity and increasing room capacity. Speaking at ITB Berlin, Issa said the country has made use of digitalisation to make regulating health and safety standards better and more efficient and to ensure the private sector had fair access to the market. “We want to make it easy for the private sector to unleash its potential,” said Issa. The tourism minister further said that steps would be taken to make it easier for private investors to increase room capacity. Tourism products for individual travellers would also be expanded.

Marriott International announced that it has signed an agreement wit