Tourists in Dubai spend nearly twice as much as those visiting other major cities

Tourists in Dubai spend almost twice as much money while visiting the emirate as those holidaying on other major cities such as London or New York, according to the results of a new study released on Monday.

“The research shows the highest spending visitors, by far, are Dubai’s, who spend nearly twice the average of our 12 cities,” said David Godchaux, CEO of Core Savills, the Dubai subsidiary of international real estate agency Savills.

“Overseas visitors, who had an overnight stay in the emirate, spent an estimated $4.7 billion in restaurants and cafes in Dubai. In terms of spending on retail, this figure reaches $9.7 billion. This dwarfs the total amounts spent in the 11 other global cities measured, with Dubai featuring ahead of London, New York, Tokyo and Paris,” he added.

Dubai ranked eighth on Savills’ list of the most attractive cities for tourists in 2015. It ranked after Paris and before Mumbai and was only Arab city on the list.

New York and London topped the list scoring 573,699 and 416,193 overnight visitors per night. The average accommodation costs per stay ranged from $173 per person in Shanghai to $553 per person in Dubai.  

“The research shows the highest spending visitors, by far, are Dubai’s, who spend nearly twice the average of our 12 cities,” said David Godchaux, CEO of Core Savills. 

Visitors add on average 3 percent to a city’s population every night, according to the research’s results, but the figure rises to 10 percent in Dubai.

Dubai is aiming to attract 20 million tourists by 2020. According to the eighth annual Mastercard Global Destinations Cities Index, which was released last month, Dubai is expected to receive 15.27 million international visitors this year, an increase of 7.5 percent over 2015.