Dubai ranks 1st place where tourists spend the most per day
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November 11, 2019
Dubai: The countless shopping centres and endless names of fashion labels have enticed tourists to do most of their shopping in Dubai, according to new research published by Mastercard’s Global Destination Cities Index (GDCI) 2019.
The study, which was carried out during 2018, revealed that tourists spent a total of $30.82 billion (Dh113.21 billion) last year with 15.93 million visitors flocking to Dubai, placing the city in the fourth spot for the top 20 city destinations in the world.
The report also indicated that tourists stayed an average of 3.5 nights in Dubai, and spent around $553 (Dh2,031) per day.
Bangkok was ranked as the most visited city for the fourth consecutive year while Paris and London were in second and third place respectively.
“While there has been significant movement in visitors to smaller cities, the top 10 has remained largely consistent. London, Paris, and Bangkok have been the top 3 since 2010, with Bangkok as No. 1 six of the past seven years. New York is another top 10 stalwart, with 13.6 million overnight visitors this year,” said Diana Munoz Robino, Senior Vice President of Global Tourism Partnerships, Mastercard.
The study also found that the city of Makkah was the second destination where tourist spend the most at $20.09 billion (Dh73.80 billion) in 2018, followed by Bangkok with $20.03 billion (Dh73.58 billion).
“[The] rise of Asia-Pacific International Travelers, cities in Asia-Pacific, have seen the largest increase in international travelers since 2009, growing 9.4 percent. In comparison, Europe, which saw the second highest growth, was up 5.5 percent. This is spurred on by the growth in mainland Chinese travelers. Since 2009, mainland China has jumped six places to be the No. 2 origin country for travelers to the 200 included destinations—behind only the US,” said Robino.
Established in 2011, the Global Destination Cities ranks 200 cities based on visitor arrivals and cross-border spending.
