Dubai ranked 5th most popular destination in the World

Dubai has been recognized as the 5th most popular city in the World according to Master Card Global Destination Cities Index released on 9th July 2014. London retained its position on number one for the third time in four years followed by Bangkok, Paris, Singapore and Dubai. Dubai was ranked ahead of New York and Istanbul - both of which were ranked higher last year. This index provides a ranking of the 132 most travelled cities from around the world.

The increasing popularity of Dubai is due to the increasing international travel due to the expanding middle class income, the innovation in travel and the availability of Dubai international airport as the Middle East airline hub. The Real Estate boom in the region has opened up the gateway for companies to set up their MENA headquarters in the emirate, which in turn has facilitated increasing business travel. Dubai’s global strategic location, investment friendly economy and rising infrastructure will play a great role in driving visitors to the emirate. Dubai is doing its best to attract both leisure and business tourists which has fuelled the need for more hotel rooms in the country.

According to the study, Dubai is projected to receive 12.47 million visitors, an increase of 7.5 percent since 2013. Dubai is one of the fastest growing cities in the world and is expected to overtake Paris and Singapore within 5 years. Dubai also generates more international visitor expenditure per resident than any other city. It was also ranked as the fourth air hub in the world by international connectivity. In fact, Dubai is only city among from Middle East and Africa to be ranked among the top ten air hubs lists.

The MasterCard index ranks cities based on the total international visitor’s arrivals and cross-border spending by a visitor in each of the 132 destination cities using custom made algorithms.

Picture credit: Copyright Jan Michael Pfeiffer (Creative Commons)