Abu Dhabi: Hotels in Abu Dhabi saw a 4.9 per cent increase in guest numbers in the first five months of 2018, driven largely by growing number of visitors from India and China.
Hotel guests numbers totalled 2.07 million from January to May this year as visitors from India, China, UK and Germany provided a boost to Abu Dhabi’s tourism market, according to figures released by emirate’s Department of Culture and Tourism (DCT).
China maintained its top position as the leading source market for Abu Dhabi, with 192,500 visitors, an increase of about 20 per cent compared to the same period in 2017.
India came in second with 166,700 visitors, followed by the UK with 119,900.
The United States and Germany also posted a growth of a 25.7 per cent and 20 per cent in visitor numbers respectively.
“These results are very encouraging, and demonstrate steady growth. They also prove Abu Dhabi’s ability to realise its strategic goals of positioning the emirate as a leading global destination, through forward-looking marketing and promotional campaigns that seek to sustain growth,” said Saif Saeed Ghobash, Undersecretary of DCT Abu Dhabi.
Domestic tourism also rose by 7.9 per cent during the first five months of 2018 with 1,489,154 hotel guests, compared to 1,371,327 during the same period in 2017.
The tourism department expects further growth with the implementation of reduced tourism and municipality fees starting this month.
