UAE named among leading sustainable tourism destinations

The UAE was ranked in the top 20 countries of 2020 across five metrics by the Federal Competitiveness and Statistics Centre

The UAE’s tourism sector has been recognised as one of the most competitive in the world, putting it in the top 20 countries of 2020 across five metrics. Notably, the country is one of world leaders in terms of sustainable tourism.

The Federal Competitiveness and Statistics Centre (FCSC), put the UAE sixth in the world in terms of sustainability and development and seventh in terms of quality of tourism infrastructure.

Looking at Dubai specifically, which has the largest tourism market of the seven emirates, hotels have now been mandated to meet new sustainability requirements by 1 July 2021. Set by Dubai Sustainable Tourism (DST), the initiative aims to enhance Dubai’s position as one of the world’s leading sustainable tourism destinations. Under the directive, hotels must resume monthly submissions of carbon emission drivers. The system has the long-term objective of advancing sustainability performance across the sector.

The FCSC also looked at the country’s growth and found that the number of hotel guests increased to around 3.38 million from July to August of 2020, compared with 1.31 million from March to the end of June of the same year.