Dubai's tourism industry has grown nearly triple this year and the number of tourists to Dubai has increased significantly this year. Dubai said today that between January and May 2022, there were 6.17 million international "overnight" tourists.

Dubai's tourism industry has nearly tripled this year

The number of tourists to Dubai has increased significantly this year. Dubai said today that between January and May 2022, there were 6.17 million international "overnight" tourists. That's up 197 percent from the same period in 2021, when more than 2 million people visited the UAE's largest city. 

Overnight visitors do not include those transiting through Dubai Airport. 

The big reason: The number of tourists in Dubai and the UAE fell to zero during 2020, when Dubai closed its airports.

It wasn't until 2022 that Dubai lifted a harsh curfew and began to gradually accept more tourists. 

In the first quarter of 2022, Dubai International Airport, a major international transport hub, reached pre-pandemic levels in passenger traffic.

This year's tourism data benefited from Expo 2020 Dubai, which will be held from 2021-Oct. to the end of March 2022. More than 24 million people eventually attended the cultural exhibition. As of January this year, 10 million people have visited the Expo, which indicates that the number of people participating in the Expo in 2022 exceeds that of 2021.