Indians have had a liking for Dubai for quite a long time now. 27 lakh Indians live in the UAE for work and business-related purposes. Now, Dubai has become the first choice for Indian tourists as well. Among the tourists visiting the city, most are Indians. This year, from January to September, a total of 68 lakh tourists visited the UAE, out which the highest, that is, 12.40 lakhs were Indians. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2019, during the same time period, the number of Indian tourists was 12 lakhs. In 2019, a total of 20 lakh Indians had visited Dubai.
Looking at the flight ticket bookings, the travel industry is expecting that in the last three months of the year, a total of 8 to 9 lakh tourists to visit Dubai in all. Dubai is also expecting to welcome a large number of tourists to the world’s longest-running shopping festival, the Dubai Shopping Festival (DSF). The third edition of the festival is going to be organized from 15th December, 2022 to 29th January, 2023. This time, 3500 outlets from more than 800 top brands will offer discounts up to 75%.
At the same time, the India-Dubai corridor has become the tenth busiest air route. As per Dubai’s economy and tourism department (DET), from January to June 2022, 8.58 lakh Indians had reached the UAE, which was the double of 2021. As per the USA’s Sabre Corporation, there are no difficult restrictions on visas between the two countries, and the visa is received quite easily, hotels are cheap, and travelling doesn’t take much time, and therefore, the UAE is a popular tourist destination among Indians.
But while people travelling with families prefer the UAE, the first choice of couples travelling together remains to be Thailand.
