Dubai to welcome 15m visitors a year by 2015

From once being solely the preserve of the rich and famous, Dubai is now on track to welcome more than 15 million visitors a year, it has been revealed.

Coming on the back of the opening of a number of new cultural and economic developments, including the 1,539-room Atlantis The Palm holiday resort, tourism chiefs have expressed their confidence that this target will be reached by 2015.

Furthermore, this growth is set to be boosted by the ongoing diversification efforts being undertaken by the emirate, with the local infrastructure benefiting from billions of pounds worth of investment.

Welcoming these latest predictions, Ian Scott, director of the UK and Ireland representative office of Dubai Tourism and Commerce Marketing, explained: "Dubai is a destination where you can expect the best, known for its ground-breaking projects the emirate continues to expand its globally acclaimed leisure and business facilities of superlative quality."

Presently, hotel occupancy levels within Dubai stand at just over 84 per cent, among the highest in the world and likely to increase further with the forthcoming opening of Dubailand, home to 24 separate theme parks.

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