Abu Dhabi tourism increases 17% through June

During the first half of 2015, Abu Dhabi has received almost 2 million tourists, a 17 percent increase over the same period in 2014.

The strong tourism guaranteed $911 million for hotels, an 8 percent increase according to Abu Dhabi Tourism & Culture Authority. Services such as venue hires and business events were also positively affected during the period.

The domestic tourism within the UAE had a 14 percent growth, representing one-third of the tourists. Those visitors formerly chose western regions and nature destinations, such as the Sir Bani Yas Island Reserve. When it comes to foreign tourists, Indians are the largest in number, followed by the U.K., China, Germany and the United States.

“We set ourselves a challenging guest arrivals target of 3.9 million hotel guests for this year, which we are very confident of achieving, especially given that our highly impressive half-year figures show double-digit growth,” Jasem Al Darmaki, acting director general of the Abu Dhabi Tourism & Culture Authority, said.

Later this month, Abu Dhabi will host the fourth MeetChina summit for the People’s Republic of China’s leading tour operators, travel agents and media representatives dedicated to enticing even more Chinese visitors into the emirate.