Where Dubai's visitors come from

Which regions do Dubai’s visitors come from?

Dubai received 19.59 million international overnight visitors in 2025, up 5% from 18.72 million in 2024.¹ Western Europe sent 4.1 million, up from 3.74 million, or 21% of the total. The GCC sent 2.99 million. CIS and Eastern Europe and South Asia sent 2.89 million each, and the Middle East and North Africa 2.17 million. North East and South East Asia sent 1.85 million, the Americas 1.40 million, Africa 897,000 and Australasia 401,000.¹ The figures are given by region, not by country.

9 categories. Highest: Western Europe, 4.1 million visitors. Lowest: Australasia, 0.4 million visitors.

Source

Source: Dubai Media Office, quoting DET, Dubai's tourism industry achieves third successive record-breaking year. Accessed 4 Nov 2026.

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How full were Dubai’s hotels in 2025?

Hotels were 80.7% full on average, up from 78.2% in 2024. Occupied room nights rose 4% to 44.85 million. The average daily rate rose 8% to AED 579, and revenue per available room rose from AED 421 to AED 467. Guests stayed 3.7 nights on average. Dubai had 154,264 hotel rooms across 827 establishments at the end of December 2025.¹

How many people have visited Dubai in 2026?

Dubai had 6.97 million overnight visitors from January to August 2026, according to DET.² DET’s research listing gives 2.00 million for January, up 3% on January 2025.³ A DET press release of 14 September 2026 reported the highest visitor numbers since February.⁴

Tourism Analytics, citing DET, says Dubai received 44.4% fewer international visitors from January to August 2026 than in the same months of 2025.⁵

These months include the UAE airspace disruption from 28 February 2026. The DET figures above do not attribute any change to it.

The small print

• Overnight visitors are not airport arrivals. GCAA data on UAE.Stat shows 30,224,510 arrivals at Dubai airports in 2025, a figure that appears to include residents returning home.⁶
• The regions are DET’s own groupings, and their figures add up to about 19.59 million. The shares are rounded by the source.¹
• The January 2026 figure comes from a DET search listing. It has not been confirmed in a DET report.³
• Tourism Analytics’ 2019 table labels a row of 1,565,000 visitors South Africa, and its 2020 table gives the same 2019 figure to Saudi Arabia.⁵