Visa on Arrival for Chinese visitors reflects the visionary leadership of the UAE says Director General of Dubai Tourism

The recent announcement by the UAE Cabinet that Chinese visitors to the UAE will now be granted Visas on Arrival at the country’s airports is an index to the growing ties between the two nations.

Sharing his opinion of the new development with Aviamost Chinese, HE Helal Saeed Almarri, Director General, Dubai Tourism said: “The decree issued by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, UAE Vice President and Prime Minster, and Ruler of Dubai on the decision to issue visas on arrival to Chinese tourists at all UAE airports, reflects the vision and leadership of His Highness as we continue to work towards Dubai‘s Tourism Vision 2020. China is one of our key markets and we’ve launched several marketing campaigns throughout the year with the aim of encouraging more tourists from China to visit Dubai. We are confident that this decree will increase the number of Chinese visitors to the emirate, particularly at a time when many tourism development projects have been launched and many more are in the pipeline that will further enhance Dubai’s position as a leading tourist destination. Tourist arrivals from China, which is in the list of top 10 source markets for Dubai, registered a 13% increase in the first seven months of this year compared to the same period last year. The number of Chinese visitors to Dubai from January to July 2016 reached 304,000 visitors compared to 269,000 Chinese visitors in  the same period in 2015.”

China, is in the list of top 10 source markets for Dubai. Over 14.2 million tourists visited Dubai in 2015. The leading tourist city is targeting 20 million tourists by 2020, the year it is set to host the Expo 2020. As per statistics, 450,000 Chinese tourists visited Dubai in 2015, an increase of 29% from the previous year.