Dubai: Attractions operating at full capacity as tourists flock to celebrate New Year

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As tourists continue flocking to Dubai to welcome New Year and enjoy the good weather, the emirate’s tourism sector is peaking and tickets to major attractions have been sold out.

Dubai has now become one of the world’s top destinations to celebrate New Year with hundreds of thousands of people converging in on Dubai. Dubai’s biggest New Year attraction is Burj Khalifa’s fireworks which is watched by thousands of visitors.

Due to a massive influx of foreign visitors, Dubai Airports on December 27 issued a peak travel advisory for the next eight days with nearly two million passengers passing through Dubai International, and average daily traffic reaching 245,000 passengers. January 2 is expected to be the busiest day with traffic exceeding 257,000 passengers.

“Dubai is quite busy with a lot of tourists currently visiting the emirate to enjoy the beautiful weather. Shopping malls are enjoying a very high footfall. Tourist attractions such as the Museum of the Future and the Burj Khalifa are enjoying full very heavy bookings. Bookings to popular tourist attractions are full for the next five-six days,” said Avinash Adnani, managing director of Pluto Travels.

The Museum of the Future is witnessing a huge traffic of visitors. Its website showed the next available booking on January 12 as of Friday, December 30, 2022.

In addition, he said popular restaurants are also witnessing very heavy bookings while finding private transportation services to transport tourists is also a challenge due to heavy demand.

Tourism has been one of the fastest growing sectors in the emirate this year. According to Dubai Economy and Tourism, the number of tourists in the first 11 months reached 12.82 million as compared to 6.02 million last year with India, Oman, Saudi Arabia, the UK and Russia emerging the top five tourist source markets for the emirate.

Mir Wasim Raja, manager of MICE and Holidays at Galadari International Travel Services (ITS), also confirmed that major attractions are almost full, with the Museum of the Future witnessing very heavy bookings.

“Desert safari and dhow cruise are also witnessing a very heavy bookings these days. Though it is closed for maintenance, even the Ain Dubai would also have seen a heavy booking had it been operational because it is a new and in-demand attraction for tourists,” Raja said.