Dubai in world's top 10 city tourism destinations

Tourists have voted with their feet, ranking Dubai as one of the popular cities in the world to visit, a report has found.

The emirate ranks as one of the most visited destinations worldwide in a report from Euromonitor International, the only city in the Middle East to make the top 10.

Dubai lured 7,783,000 international visitors in 2009, and was one of only four cities in the top 10 to notch up a rise in visitor numbers. Popular destinations such as New York, London and Las Vegas all saw visitor figures tumble.

Regionally, the Middle East was the best performer, with only a 0.6 percent drop in visitors.

Makkah led the way in 11th place, with 400,000 visitors more than 2008, despite fears of the H1N1 virus during the Hajj season.

The only other Middle Eastern city to make the top 20 was Cairo, which was 17th. The city recorded just over 4.4m visitors in 2009, an 11 percent drop on the previous year.

North America was the hardest hit region, with an 11.3 percent fall in visitors, on the back of the global financial crisis and the strengthening of the dollar.