Dubai: A global destination for tourism

Fourth in MasterCard Global Destination Cities Index

14/06/2015 4:54 pm EDT

Dubai continues to attract visitors from around the world, according to international newspapers and news websites.

The Independent says that Dubai continues its efforts to fascinate tourists with all that is new and interesting to be the first hub for tourism, entertainment and investment.

The continuous development in the city has increased the number of visitors as well as granted it high rankings in indicators of global travel and meetings, the newspaper adds. This coincides with MasterCard’s efforts to raise Dubai to fourth place among 132 destinations for international visitors in the MasterCard Global Destination Cities Index, after London, Paris and Bangkok.

Dubai steps up from eighth place in 2012 to fourth place, while MasterCard predicts that the emirate will receive 14.3 million visitors in 2015.

The MasterCard ranking comes days after Dubai retained its ranking as the first place in the Middle East for international association meetings, jumping 19 spots globally to 44th place in the 2014 International Congress & Convention Association (ICCA) World Rankings – up from 63rd place in 2013.

Dubai received 13.2m international visitors on short visits in 2014, according to official statistics released by Dubai’s Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DTCM) in May 2015.

Travel Daily News said that the resort, Four Seasons Dubai, which is located on the Jumeirah Beach, won the award for the best new hotel in the Middle East Hotel Awards 2015.