UAE tourism grown by eight percent since 2010

The UAE’s National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has reported that the country’s tourism sector grew by eight per cent over the last three years following the global financial crisis, reports 7Days.

NBS also reported that the growth of the UAE tourism industry has continued at a rate of 2.9 percent, with the number of hotels increasing to 575, with Dubai accounting for 69 percent, or 399 hotels, of this total number.

Abu Dhabi comes second in the hotel stakes with 14 percent, or 81 hotels, of the total number of hotels in the UAE, followed by Sharjah with eight percent (46 hotels).

The emirates of Ajman, Fujairah, Ras Al Khaimah and Umm Al Qaiwain combined account for nine percent of the total number of hotels of country.

The total number of rooms offered by the UAE tourism industry grew by 8.2 percent in 2012 to reach 88,116 rooms, while the number of guests increased in 2011 by 19.3 percent to reach over 13.1 million in 2012.

Other statistics released by the NBS reveal that 16 percent of the total visitor number came from the UAE, with 13 percent from other Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries and seven percent from other Arab countries. That leaves the 33 percent of European guests who made up the visitors to UAE hotels with the remaining 31 percent being nationals from other countries.