Dubai's Popularity With Visitors Continues To Rise

His Excellency Helal Almarri, Director General of Dubai Tourism

Dubai’s ongoing efforts to position itself as a premier leisure and business hub have resulted in growing visitor numbers to the city, as well as higher rankings on various global traveler and meeting indexes.

This week, global payments giant MasterCard announced that Dubai has risen to fourth position out of 132 top destinations for international travelers in the MasterCard Global Destination Cities Index, behind London, Paris and Bangkok. A one-place rise since 2014 figures, Dubai has risen from the eighth position in 2012 and MasterCard predicts that the emirate will welcome almost 14.3 million international visitors in 2015, a ratio of 5.7 international overnight visitors per city resident. Official figures released by Dubai’s Department of Tourism & Commerce Marketing (Dubai Tourism) in May of this year showed that the emirate welcomed 13.2 international overnight visitors in 2014.

Mastercard’s announcement came days after Dubai retained its top ranking in the Middle East region for international association meetings, and climbed 19 places globally to 44th position in the 2014 International Congress & Convention Association (ICCA) World Rankings - up from 63rd place in 2013.

The ICCA rankings are considered the most dependable and consistent benchmark on how individual destinations which host international association meetings are performing. International organisations and associations regularly use ICCA rankings to gauge the event hosting capacity of a city they may wish to host events in.

In terms of international meetings, Dubai had more news to celebrate, as the Union of International Association (UIA) announced in a recently published report that Dubai made huge leaps forward in the number of international meetings hosted. Hosting 146 international meetings in 2014, compared to 80 in 2013, Dubai jumped from 21st position to 14th globally.

Commenting on Dubai’s growing appeal to international leisure and business visitors, His Excellency Helal Almarri, Director General of Dubai Tourism, said: “Dubai as a destination is ever evolving in order to create memorable experiences for its guests through world-class infrastructure, excellent service and remarkable attractions which are compelling and entice visitors to return. Although the MasterCard rankings are predictive, they do approximate with our own estimations of future growth and are a clear demonstration of Dubai’s continual rise as a global destination of choice.

With regards to business tourism, the increase in the number of meetings and conferences being hosted in Dubai is significantly contributing to the rise in visitor numbers while also positioning the emirate as a global hub for creation, education and innovation.

We are very pleased that the efforts being exerted by the city’s tourism stakeholders to deliver the Tourism Vision of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, UAE Vice President and Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, and create remarkable experiences for both leisure and business visitors are seeing results, and will continue to seek to reach into new markets while maintaining and increasing our share of existent markets.”

Expanded airport capacity to continue driving growth

As international meetings in the city continue to rise, so do the number of international travelers who are choosing to visit Dubai. The city welcomed 13.2 million international overnight travelers in 2014, an 8.4 percent increase over 2013. The purpose of visits, although dominated by leisure at 59 percent, saw over 21 percent visiting for business, and another 17 percent visiting friends and/or relatives.

As a hub between East and West, and a gateway to emerging markets across the world, Dubai International Airport (DXB) has become the world’s number one airport in terms of international passengers, with over 70.47 million passengers using DXB in 2014.

Construction is also expected to begin later this year on the expansion of Dubai’s second airport, Al Maktoum International at Dubai World Central (DWC). The existing six million passengers per year capacity terminal is set to be to be increased to 26 million passengers per year by Q1 in 2017, as part of a US$32 billion expansion project announced in September 2014 to create the world’s biggest airport, with an ultimate capacity in excess of 200 million passengers per year.

Travelore Tips: The Travel Insurance In Your Wallet You Didn't Know You Had

(Photo: Getty Images/iStockphoto)

I recently wrote about a new air travel insurance plan called AirCare, which provides cash payouts on the spot if your flight is delayed more than two hours for any reason, if your luggage is lost, delayed or stolen, if a flight delay causes you to miss a connecting flight, or if you're stuck on the tarmac for more than two hours. There are surprisingly no obvious loopholes, and this is over and above what compensation you might collect from the airline, insurance policies or other sources, all for $25 per flight.

But soon after publishing the story, some readers pointed out that credit cards provide the same benefits for free. Do they? Yes and no.

READ MORE: New service covers flight mishaps for $25 a trip

What I didn't realize is that, yes, some credit card issuers have, buried in their fine print, contracts with rather extensive travel insurance. But not all do, and the benefits vary widely between issuers.

Did you ever have a laptop or iPhone stolen or "go missing" during TSA scanning, or perhaps in the plane? Depending on the cards you used to pay for your trip, your issuer's built-in, free travel insurance might have compensated you for at least part of your loss.

Did a traveling companion get sick just before departing on a trip, causing you to cancel? Did the airline lose your bags, and only offer a paltry $500 in compensation? You might have been covered and not even known it.

It's the travel insurance you probably didn't know you have.

Of course, the details of that coverage are going to be buried in fine print, in documents you probably threw away when your card showed up in the mail. Not to worry – it's easy to go back and check because it's all online.

There are three main categories of air travel insurance included with credit cards, although not all cards offer all of them:

Trip interruption or delay

Your flight is interrupted or delayed after departure due to a "covered reason" -- typically one or more (but not always all) of the following: illness, injury, labor strikes, equipment failure or weather. Needless to say, no card covers all possible causes of a delay. If it's not in the "covered reasons" (for example, a crew showing up late for your flight or congestion-related air traffic control delays), you're on your own.

Trip cancellation (i.e., when you have to cancel a trip before departure)

You or a traveling companion or immediate family member (definitions of "immediate" vary widely) become ill or injured before departure and you need to cancel your plans. For example, your son breaks his leg a week before your trip and you have $4,000 in non-refundable trip arrangements, many credit cards cover that. But in all cases, pre-existing conditions are not covered.

Lost or delayed baggage

The airline loses your checked bag, someone steals something from your carry-on bag in flight, or your bag is not lost but merely delayed upon arrival. Different cards define a delay differently: for some it's just four hours, for another it might be 12 hours. And in almost all cases, lost bag coverage is in "excess" of whatever you collect from your airline or any other insurance you might have, such as homeowners insurance (although if your policy deductible is $1,500 and the loss is $1,000, you might not have to make a claim if you present your policy's declaration page to the credit card company's representative).

Even computers, cellphones and jewelry are covered by some credit cards, although for no more than $500 per incident. But at least it's something, and airlines don't cover these things at all.

Cards vary in their deadline for making a claim, so in some cases if you've had a recent loss but didn't know you had coverage, you may still have time to file a claim retroactively to your credit card issuer (some claims can be made a full year after the loss). However, some cards require that you pay the entire cost of your trip on the card to qualify for coverage, while others settle for just a portion of the trip. One card we checked, oddly, only pays for round-trip transportation, not one-way trips. Some cards cover trips of up to 30 days, another might cover up to 60.

This free coverage will never be as extensive as a policy you purchase separately from a company like Travel Guard or Access America, but neither is it something to ignore, and if you've had a recent loss you even might be able to file a claim retroactively.

Are you covered?

Airfarewatchdog looked in-depth at some favorite credit card brands and found some with extensive benefits and others with paltry ones, even though the annual fees tend to be similar. Here's a synopsis of what they will and won't do for you next time something goes bump in the flight, along with links to their official contracts:

American Express

Chase Sapphire card

Citibank Aadvantage Signature card

World MasterCard

Capital One Venture Rewards

United Explorer Visa Platinum card

Contributed by George Hobica,  the founder of Airfarewatchdog.com. Airfarewatchdog features the best airfares on thousands of routes verified by a team of expert fare analysts.

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Travelore News: London Crowned World’s Top Tourist Destination

 London has been crowned the most popular tourist destination in the world, by the respected Mastercard Global Cities Index report, putting the city ahead of Bangkok and Paris.

 

According to the report, London is projected to host 18.7 million international visitors in 2014 – 300,000 more visitors than the 2013 top destination city Bangkok. 

 

The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, said: “With nearly nineteen million visitors this year London is the world’s favourite place to visit. Our city perfectly combines history, heritage, arts and culture, not to mention vast amounts of green space and major events that are the envy of the planet.”

 

Now in its fourth year, the index provides a ranking of the 132 most travelled cities from around the world.

 

Europe boasts two of the top five cities, London and Paris, with Bangkok, Singapore, and Dubai making up the global top five.  Overall, Europe boasts eight of the top 20 destination cities by international overnight visitors. Istanbul (7^th), Barcelona (11^th), Amsterdam (12^th), Milan (13^th), Rome (14^th) and Vienna (17^th) all make the cut.

 

Ann Cairns, President of International Markets, Mastercard said: “The recognition of this year’s top international destinations reinforces the continued importance of cities as business, cultural and economic hubs.  For London in particular, being recognised once again for its place as the top destination will further boost this city’s ability to continue to be a global leader, whether it is hosting events that shine a spotlight on this city to draw in further investment, or inspiring those within to drive economic growth.”

In 2013, according to the Office of National Statistics International Passenger Survey, London welcomed over 16 million international visitors in one year for the first time in history. Tourists from around the globe flocked to the city in ever increasing numbers to attend world class exhibitions, visit amazing royal palaces, dine at Michelin starred restaurants, and watch world class sporting events.

 

Some of the major cultural events in London this year drawing millions of international visitors include ‘Ming: 50 Years that changed China’ at the British Museum, ‘Constable: The Making of a Master’ at the V&A and ‘Rembrandt: The Final Years’ at the National Gallery.

 

Among many other 2014 events expected to capture worldwide attention is the commemoration of the 100^th Anniversary of World War I with the re-opening of the Imperial War Museum this month and the ‘Great War in Portraits’ exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery.  Together with an exhibition about fictional detective Sherlock Holmes at the Museum of London and the Thames River Festival in September, this year offers a feast of activities for visitors.

 

For more information on London attractions visit www.visitlondon.com.

 

 

About the MasterCard Global Destination Cities Index

The MasterCard Index of Global Destination Cities ranks cities in terms of the number of their total international visitor arrivals and the cross-border spending by these same visitors in the destination cities, and gives visitor and passenger growth forecasts for 2014.

 

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