UAE set to witness influx of tourists from China

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The UAE’s tourism industry is gearing up to get its share of Chinese tourism traffic as the country’s outbound market expands.

 

“Travel is becoming a routine from once-in-a-lifetime experience, but Chinese travellers are still in Asia because of geographical proximity,” Grace Pan, a senior manager at market research firm ACNielsen in China, said in a presentation to the travel trade in Dubai.

 

Pan said the number of outbound Chinese tourists was 34 million last year. Her research has identified 26 big and medium-size Chinese cities as sources of outbound travel. Dubai hotels received 68,272 Chinese tourists from January to September this year, an increase of 48 per cent over the same period in 2006.