Dubai flights: Passengers from India, UK, Pakistan among top travellers at DXB in 2022

India, the United Kingdom, and Pakistan were the top source destinations for Dubai International (DXB) airport in 2022 in terms of passenger traffic.

According to annual figures released by Dubai Airports on Tuesday, 9.8 million passengers from India travelled to Dubai last year, the highest from any destination.

India was followed by Saudi Arabia (4.9m), the UK (4.6m), Pakistan (3.7m), the US (3m), Russia (1.9m) and Turkey (1.6m).

The world’s busiest international airport is currently connected to 229 destinations across 99 countries through more than 88 international carriers, it said in a statement on Tuesday.

According to the latest data published by Dubai's Department of Economy and Tourism, the emirate has doubled the number of international overnight visitors 2022, receiving 14.36 million visitors in 2022, marking an increase of 97 per cent year on year.

India, Saudi Arabia, the UK and Pakistan were also top source markets for Dubai tourism last year.

The number of tourists who visited Dubai from India, Saudi Arabia, the UK and Pakistan last year were 1.84 million, 1.21 million, 1.04 million and 356,000, respectively.

The Dubai 2040 Urban Master Plan aims to expand the emirate's tourism offering by over 100 per cent. It will launch new initiatives aligned with the UAE Tourism Strategy, which seeks to attract 40 million guests by 2031 and increase the tourism sector's contribution to the emirate's GDP to Dh450 billion.

The city was recently ranked as the No. 1 global destination in the Tripadvisor Travellers’ Choice Awards 2023. The city won the top position for the second successive year — only the second city in history to achieve the feat.

In 2022, Dubai was also selected as one of 20 destinations globally under Airbnb’s Live and Work Anywhere initiative to identify the world’s most remote worker-friendly destinations.

Top cities

Dubai continues to unveil strong regulatory initiatives to promote the growth of the tourism sector. Hassle-free entry procedures for business and leisure travellers include a 60-day tourist visa available from September 2022, and a five-year multi-entry visa for employees of multinational companies. The city also has a 10-year Golden Visa residency scheme, permits for virtual work, and retire in Dubai programmes.

In terms of cities, London was the top destination with three million passengers for Dubai airport in 2022, followed by Riyadh (2 million), Mumbai (1.9 million) and Jeddah and New Delhi both with 1.7 million passengers.

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