UAE leads the tourism sector within the Middle East

The UAE continues to be an attractive destination for tourists. The country’s travel sector may rise by 10% by the end of 2023, and a 40% growth is expected across the region by 2026, as stated in a joint report by Insight Out Consulting and Phocuswright.

During the first half of 2023, the country led the tourism industry, while maintaining international and regional dominance. The UAE was among the first countries to recover their tourism sector after the COVID-19 pandemic. Year 2022 witnessed a 101% growth in the sector compared to 2021.

The UAE government is actively supporting tourism incentives, including the UAE Tourism Strategy, which aims to attract investments to the amount of AED 100B (USD 27.2B) by 2031. There is also a target to accommodate up to 40M tourists in hotels across the country.

The UAE is actively expanding in other areas, such as hotel business. Due to the amount of tourist arrivals and high demand for hotel accommodation, it is planned that the number of hotel rooms across the country will exceed the 200K mark by 2030.

Abu Dhabi is among the most popular destinations within the UAE, welcoming more than 2.4M visitors during the first half of 2023 alone. This is twice as much as during the same period last year. The emirate experienced a 67% increase in passenger traffic, as a total of 10M people have arrived in the UAE through Abu Dhabi during the first six months of 2023. The number of flights increased by 36% and the average occupancy rate of hotels reached 70%.