DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — The
UAE’s tourism revenues surpassed $5 billion in the first half of this year, officials
said Sunday, with a strong performance expected this winter when neighboring
Qatar hosts football’s World Cup.
اضافة اعلان
Hotel occupancy was up more than 40 percent on
COVID-hit 2021, UAE prime minister and Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid
Al-Maktoum said after a cabinet meeting in the capital Abu Dhabi.
“Our tourism sector’s revenues surpassed 19 billion
dirhams ($5.2 billion) in the first half of 2022,” Sheikh Mohammed said,
according to the official WAM news agency.
“The total number of hotel guests reached 12
million, achieving 42 percent growth, and we expect a strong tourism
performance in this winter season.”
Dubai, an established holiday destination, is
expecting to host large numbers of football fans during the World Cup in
November and December due to a scarcity of accommodation in tiny Qatar.
Dubai is one of the Gulf cities operating daily
shuttle flights to and from Qatar during the World Cup, allowing fans to stay
outside the wealthy state and still attend games.
Dubai airport, the world’s busiest for international
travel pre-pandemic, handled 27.8 million passengers in the first half of this
year, up more than 160 percent on the same period of 2021, it said last month.
A quick vaccination roll-out allowed the UAE to
bounce back quickly from the pandemic, enjoying a sharp uptick in visitors as
Dubai hosted the
Expo world fair from last October to March.
Sheikh Mohammed said this year’s economic growth has
exceeded 22 percent and foreign trade is more than 1 trillion dirhams ($272
billion), compared to 840 billion dirhams pre-pandemic.
The cabinet also approved electric cargo aircraft
“fully powered with clean energy”, and a new law aimed at increasing
private-sector involvement in government projects.
The law will encourage “the private sector to
participate in development and strategic projects, increasing investment in
projects of economic and social values”, WAM said.
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