The operator of Dubai airports is looking for opportunities to enter into new visa arrangements upon arrival for guests of the emirate.
Paul Griffiths, executive director of Dubai Airports, said that visas on arrival for tourists led to a sharp increase in passenger traffic in the emirate. Now the operator is looking for opportunities to expand such measures into new markets.
Griffiths said the Chinese tourist situation is an example of how visas upon arrival help attract more people to Dubai. Passenger traffic through Dubai's airports from China has grown to 2.2 million since the UAE submitted visas on arrival for Chinese tourists in September 2016. A year after the entry into force of this agreement, the number of tourists from China who stayed overnight in Dubai instead of immediately making a transfer increased by 41.4%.
In the first five months of 2018, 400,547 Chinese visitors were registered in Dubai.
According to the Dubai airport operator, passenger traffic from Russia also increased by 28% to 1.3 million people after the entry into force of a similar measure in January 2017.
"Visa facilitation agreements are the main way to increase traffic to Dubai," Griffiths said.
According to Dubai Tourism, of the 20 major inbound tourism markets for Dubai, the Emirate has a visa agreement on arrival on the 14th.
