Dubai – a preferred destination for Indian business and leisure travellers

Thursday, March 31, 2022

For Indian travellers, Dubai has been a high priority destination for new business opportunities with stringent safety standards.

Be it futuristic innovations, sports, tourism or bleisure (business + leisure) options, Dubai has indeed led global tourism revival consistently Indian visitors including Bollywood stars, corporate honchos, ministerial delegates and entrepreneurs have made their way to Dubai in 2020, 2021 and continuing the trend in 2022 to participate in strategic initiatives for growth.

Issam Kazim, Chief Executive Officer, Dubai Corporation for Tourism and Commerce Marketing affirms, the experience of the past two years has also only served to underline the importance of in-person business events and what they can offer to organisers, participants, sponsors, exhibitors and their wider networks.

With one of the key priorities for the department being to capture 400 global economic events annually by 2025, they continue to explore all opportunities to host business events in Dubai and work with stakeholders in the city to provide meeting planners a safe, impactful platform for knowledge sharing, networking and creating lasting legacies.

With a robust line-up of events taking the spotlight, there’s been non-stop action in Dubai right through the years and continuing to show steady growth.


When Kerala based entrepreneur Elizabeth Jean Thomas, participated at the India Pavillion in Expo 2020 Dubai during January 2022, it was the global networking potential that impressed her immensely.

She says, it was an incredible experience and provided the much-needed visibility for an early stage startup like ours.

The ‘Innovation Bus’ was an interesting concept, installed right next to the India Pavilion, meant for projecting India as one of the leading start-up ecosystems.

This opportunity was extended by DPIIT and Startup India.

India As A Promising Source Market For Dubai Tourism

Interestingly, as per Dubai Department of Economy and Tourism (DET) official announcement with Tourism Performance Report Jan – Dec 2021: Dubai welcomed 7.28M overnight visitors from Jan – Dec 2021, with the highest number of international guests from India at 910,000.


Year-on-Year, India has been a highly promising source market for Dubai Tourism.

High Potential Of Arabian Travel Mart

The Arabian Travel Mart (ATM) – an international travel and tourism event has been creating excellent business opportunities for networking, buying/selling, technology, etc. within the Middle East for inbound and outbound tourism professionals.

Expressing gladness, Issam Kazim, CEO, Dubai Corporation for Tourism and Commerce Marketing emphasises, as a long-standing partner of ATM, they are pleased to once again play host to the 29th edition taking place in May 2022.


With our momentous achievements in the global travel and tourism space, Dubai has become a hub of innovation, ideas, and connections for businesses across all industries.

Dubai is proud to continue to showcase its ability to organise world class international events with stringent health and safety measures in place while positioning Dubai as a global city that is open and safe for residents and visitors, and providing them the opportunity to enjoy a well-rounded destination experience.

Daniel D’souza, President & Country Head – Holidays, SOTC Travel says, that the upcoming Arab Travel Mart 2022 presents significant opportunity to redefine the revival of Travel Trade industry amidst the new normal.


Both Dubai and the Middle East have been a hub for global business and lately for favourite sports including golf, soccer, F1 and cricket that also hold a strong allure for business and leisure travellers.

They are positive that global sporting events will play a key role in boosting tourism in Dubai and the Middle East.

Bullish About Middle Eastern Countries:

The head of a travel agency affirms confidently, reopening of borders and easing of restrictions is already resulting in a considerable uptick for Corporate MICE.

The Middle East being important for our MICE segment, in the recent past they have successfully managed groups within 20-200 guests despite the pandemic.


Sporting events were maximised with delivery of 3 mid-sized MICE groups (between 30-100 delegates) during the T20 World Cup and Formula1 in the UAE.

With the reopening of commercial aviation, acceleration of demand causing overall revival of the travel sector will soon be a reality.

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• Dubai’s global stature as tourism hub gets a boost