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Dubai’s culinary landscape witnessed a 61% year-on-year surge in restaurant outings in 2023, with 84% of diners opting for more budget-friendly bites, according to a new industry report by the Dubai Department of Economy and Tourism (DET).
Findings of the second annual ‘Dubai Gastronomy Industry Report’ show that in 2023 the average number of visits by patrons to restaurants jumped to 2.9 times per week, compared to 1.8 times in 2022.
This surge across the 13,000-odd restaurants and cafés in Dubai saw a clear bias for casual dining, with 84% preferring this option, while 75% opted for food courts as their top choice and 72% chose street food vendors.
A growing enthusiasm for Dubai’s culinary ecosystem also saw 69% of UAE residents rating the city as the world’s leading gastronomy hub, with 52% preferring many of the premium dining options the emirate has on offer.
Although diners did eat out more in 2023, inflationary pressures resulted in residents seeking out more cost-effective dining options, resulting in spending on meals falling to AED162 per capita in 2023, as compared to AED198 per capita in 2022.
Gen-Xers, North and South East Asians, and Western expats spent the most while dining out, according to the DET report, averaging AED191, AED200 and AED237 per week per capita, respectively.
Nearly a third of patrons, or 36%, said value for money was their number one priority when dining out, while another 33% stated that the type of cuisine was paramount, with Lebanese and Indian emerging as top choices. Good food hygiene (32%) was also a top draw for patrons when dining out.
Communities that saw the highest footfall from dining patrons in 2023 include Dubai Marina, which topped the list and had a 100% performance score, followed by Oud Metha (99%), Palm Jumeirah (100%) and Downtown Dubai (99%), and Jebel Ali (99%).
The report also revealed Dubai’s growing popularity as a culinary hub, with two restaurants named among the world’s 50 best restaurants, 15 among the MENA region’s 50 best restaurants and the inclusion of 90 Dubai restaurants in the Michelin Guide Dubai 2023, up from 69 in the previous year’s edition.
Dubai also scored second overall worldwide in terms of restaurant density.
(Writing by Bindu Rai; editing by Seban Scaria)
