With 3.97 million visitors in the first quarter of 2022 – a 1.27 million increase from 2021 – and 82 percent hotel occupancy recorded during the same time period, it is clear that Dubai remains the world’s leading global tourism and business hub.
This success is enabled by a government that works closely with its partners to develop “every aspect of tourism, including medical and wellness tourism,” said Mohamed Essa Almheiri, director of Health and Tourism Department at the Dubai Health Authority (DHA), speaking at a Technogym organised panel on the growth of wellness and medical tourism.
“I do believe that the offerings of Dubai as a destination over the last two years and the tremendous organic growth it’s witnessed is a result of developing every aspect of tourism and opening up to medical and wellness tourism,” Almheiri said.
“Everyone wants to look young and feel good. Around 43 percent of the medical tourism we had in 2021 was for dermatology services, followed by dental and gynaecology at third place. With dermatology increasing on an annual basis, we know that people want to look and feel younger,” he continued.
The growth of wellness tourism could be in part attributed to consumers’ experience with the pandemic, said Sultan Almteiri, director of Business Stakeholders & Government Relations at Dubai Department of Economy and Tourism, who was also speaking at the panel, which was moderated by Arabian Business’s editor-in-chief Staff Writer.
“We have seen that people’s way of thinking has changed. Tourists are increasingly looking to have experiences and focusing more on their health and wellbeing as well,” said Almteiri.
“Based on that, Dubai is offering even more experiences related to wellness; we have seen the numbers change in this and we have seen a bigger intent to grow this sector. As we know, we have a target to make Dubai the most visited city in the world so wellness tourism is a big part of this,” he added.
Almteiri mentioned the Dubai Fitness Challenge, and the 30 by 30 initiative as examples of how the Dubai government is supporting wellness initiatives, adding that there are summer tourism plans related to health and wellness in the works.
Dubai’s successful handling of coronavirus also supported the growth of tourism, including medical and wellness.
“Even before the pandemic, we used to work closely with our partners, hand in hand to achieve the goal of having Dubai be the most visited city in the world,” said Almteiri.
“During the pandemic we all came together, creating the trust among international tourists to come visit Dubai. We’ve seen a clear and huge support from the industry with everyone working closely with us and all of this resulted in the huge success of Dubai over the past two years,” he continued.
As more people came into Dubai as result of its handling of coronavirus, they saw all what the city had to offer which encouraged them to consider it for their businesses, explained Almteiri.
“Dubai is an attractive city. During the pandemic, people started to move to Dubai because it was perceived as the safest city. When they came here and saw how well sectors like tourism and retail are doing and most importantly they saw that it is a hub to move around the world,” he said.
“All of this is an incentive for all these investors to come to Dubai, including wellness entrepreneurs and businesses,” added Almteiri.
Echoing the same sentiment, Almheiri said: “I think Dubai is a field of opportunities and a place where you can grow any type of business. What supports that is the flexible government we have.”
“Most of the city’s businesses had been impacted by the pandemic and they struggled but Sheikh Hamdan assisted them during that time while in some countries they shut down. This created an opportunity for us, I believe, to attract these businesses that are looking for a new hub to re-start from. We are welcoming them all to be a part of this community and country,” he continued.
Wellness and medical tourism continue to be in the books for Dubai, with Almteiri saying: “As Dubai, we will keep launching new initiatives that support wellness in the city and we will keep working with our partners hand in hand to grow this sector. This segment will be growing more and more and it is an opportunity for everyone.”
“I believe we have passed the difficult times and it is time to enjoy the fruits of the labour we have provided,” concluded Almheiri.
Follow us on
