31/01/2017 07:42 AST
Dubai has been ranked as world's seventh most popular city destination by Euromonitor International for 2015 with a total of 14.3 million international visitors.
International arrivals include visitors from abroad who are in the city under review as their first point of entry, and also includes those visitors to the city who arrived in the country via a different point of entry, but then go on to visit the city in question during their trip.
The UAE emirate was the top performer in the region posting a steady growth with eight per cent increase in inbound arrivals, thanks mainly to its extensive investment in state-of-the-art and world-leading infrastructure, luxury shopping, hotels and entertainment.
Not only Dubai, the Middle East and Africa region, in general, dominated the global ranking list with majority of the cities in the
region including Makkah (ranked 21st) and Riyadh (39th) - Saudi Arabia; Manama ( 27) - Bahrain; Doha (64) - Qatar and Cairo (68) besides Marrakech (Morocco), Istanbul (Turkey) making it to the Top 100 list.
Makkah was the strongest performer in the region, as 2015 witnessed a spurt in the number of religious tourists flocking to the city.
In the top 100 global list, Hong Kong remained the hot favourite by some margin, despite falling arrivals. The city faces increasing difficulties to maintain its attractiveness, especially among younger Chinese travellers, said the report by Euromonitor.
performed well has 12 cities in the Top 100, but the vast majority are located in the Middle East and North Africa. Johannesburg is the only city from the rest of the African continent that makes it into the ranking.
The second spot was clinched by Bangkok that benefited from the declining popularity of Hong Kong with growth of 10 per cent in arrivals, despite the Erewan Shrine bombing in August 2015. The city jumped to take second place.
London, which came third in the global list, was also the top-ranked city in Europe with international arrivals growing just short of seven per cent in 2015, boosted by England’s hosting of the Rugby World Cup in September 2015.
Paris, which came fifth in the global ranking, had been witness to the Charlie Hebdo and Bataclan attacks in 2015. Although the impact was minimal in 2015, 2016 arrivals are expected to be harder hit, said the Euromonitor report.
Istanbul (ranked 8th) proved largely immune to a decline in Russian arrivals due to the weak rouble, and unlike Turkish beach destinations registered growth. However, the Atatürk Airport bombing and military coup show it remains a volatile city.
Countries with a comparable offering to France, Turkey, Egypt and Tunisia (which were hit by terrorist attacks) saw booming international arrivals.
Among the European majors Spain, Greece, Portugal and Italy, in particular, attracted growing numbers of visitors.
With the exception of Heraklion, on Crete, and Rhodes, which continued to be impacted by the continuing migrant crisis, all cities in these countries showed strong growth.
Athens had another record year with arrivals growing by 22.6 per cent in 2015, despite political and economic turmoil.
In Italy, Milan performed strongly thanks to the Expo Milano 2015. The Expo event counted more than 21 million visitors and it attracted many international arrivals, especially during the summer months.
Moscow saw arrivals slump due to worsening ties with the EU, economic sanctions and a slump in the rouble.
However, the biggest news story coming out of North America has been the election of Donald Trump. Whether, and how, this will impact arrivals to the US (and possibly Canada as a substitute destination for travellers from across the Atlantic) will become evident from the 2016 and 2017 arrival numbers, stated the report.
While the top Mexican cities performed weakly in 2015, Mexican tourism overall is booming.
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