Dubai overnight visitors grew 5.1% Y-o-Y reaching 4.1 million in 1Q2016, with growth driven by GCC countries (25% of total) and India, according to a statement by Dubai’s Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (Dubai Tourism). This growth came despite “most markets experiencing flat to negative growth”, said Director General of Dubai Tourism, Helal Almarri, attributing the growth to festivals, events and new retail destinations with more flagship projects and initiatives in the pipeline. Dubai’s tourism growth targets will focus on markets within a four-hour flight path; the GCC and India in particular, Almari added. Visitors from Saudi, grew 14% to 476,000 and Oman 32% to 322,000, followed by Kuwait and Qatar. India’s visitors, the second largest contributor, grew by 14%, followed by Pakistan. Western Europe came in as the second largest feeder region (23% share) with UK visitors up 10% (8% of total visitors) and Germany flat Y-o-Y (4% of total). Growth in visitors came in at 4% for China, 25% for Philippines and 9% for Canada. However, some countries saw declining visitors, including: Egypt, Russia, Jordan, Australia, and the Netherlands. As of March 2016, there were 676 operating establishments in Dubai, with 98,949 rooms across hotels and hotel apartments. (Gulf news, Zawya)