Around 150,000 Saudis visit Dubai for Eid
Saudi Arabia said 150,000 visitors from the Gulf Kingdom would flock to Dubai during the Eid Al Adha holidays.
Figures by the Saudi information and tourism research centre, a government establishment, showed nearly 58,000 Saudis visited Dubai during Eid Al Adha in 2010 and around 75,000 during the same holiday in 2011.
Their number peaked at around 874,000 through 2011, nearly 68 per cent over the previous year while it was estimated at around 540,000 in the first half of 2012.
The Centre’s director Mohammed Al Ahmed told the Saudi Aleqtisadiah newspaper: “We issue data on the number of Saudi tourists to Dubai every year based on information gathered from border points, the Ministry of Interior and government institutions in Dubai……so far, around 80,000 Saudis arrived in Dubai for this Eid holiday and the figure could reach 150,000…our data is compatible with that issued by Dubai.”
His figures, based on Dubai government statistics, showed the number of Saudi visitors to Dubai, the region’s business and tourism hub, soared by nearly 40 per cent in the first half of this year compared to the same period of last year.
Al Ahmed said the number of Saudis who visited Dubai in 2011 accounted for nearly 9.6 per cent of the total visitors to the emirate during that year.