Dubai International records second-busiest month ever in July

Dubai International received 8.2 million passengers in July, its second-busiest month ever, thanks to an uptick in travellers from Eastern Europe and Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), the operator Dubai Airports said.

DXB, as the airport is known, served 1.8 per cent more passengers in July compared with the same period a year earlier.

Year-to-date passenger traffic increased 1.6 per cent to 51.9 million during the first seven months of the year from the same period a year earlier.

Traffic from Eastern Europe was the fastest-growing in July, surging 24.4 per cent, followed by the CIS which registered a 18.34 per cent rise with Africa reporting a 9.7 per cent increase in travellers.

Dubai, the commercial and tourism hub of the Arabian Gulf that recorded a 6.2 per cent increase in the number of tourists to 15.8 million in 2017, aims to reach the 20 million visitors mark by 2020. The UAE, the second-biggest GCC economy, is implementing a number of measures to boost tourism, including plans to grant visit visas to transit passengers.

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India, Saudi Arabia and the UK maintained their top three spots in terms of Dubai's source markets for tourists. Indian visitors climbed to 1.03 million, while visitors from Saudi Arabia reached 583, 975 and the UK 581,557.

London, with 358,201 passengers, topped the list of the most popular destinations served from DXB by traffic volume in July, followed by Kuwait (221,696), Mumbai (209,205) and Riyadh (200,411).

Cargo volumes increased 4.8 per cent in the month to 223,488 tonnes from the same period a year earlier. Year-to-date cargo volumes fell 1.6 per cent to 1.49 million tonnes compared with the year earlier period.