Tourism & Hospitality | Saturday 6 June, 2015 1:38 am |

Dubai: Dubai gained another spot to be placed fourth among the most popular destinations for jetsetters, according to a MasterCard survey.

The city was also ranked as the third air hub in the world by international connectivity and the only one from the Middle East and Africa (MEA) in the Top 10 air hubs list.

“Since the inception of the Global Destination Cities Index in 2009, Dubai has continued to climb the ranks as an international travel destination for both business and leisure purposes,” said Eyad Al Kourdi, Country Manager — UAE, MasterCard.

According to the study, Dubai is expected to receive almost 14.3 million international visitors in 2015, an increase of 8 per cent since 2014. When looking at the number of international overnight visitors that destination cities attract per city resident, Dubai is the tops with 5.7 visitors per resident (an increase by 0.8 from 2014).

The city was thus able to generate more international overnight visitor expenditure per resident than any other city (estimated at $4,668).

“The global economic recovery remains tentative and uneven, and demand for exports continues to be weak,” said Dr. Yuwa Hedrick-Wong, global economic adviser to MasterCard. “In this context, stronger growth in international visitors and spending can make a significant contribution to income and employment generation for the destination cities.”

In 2015, it is expected that nearly 383 million overnight trips will be made by visitors between the Index’s 132 cities, and expected to spend $360 billion during their visits.