Dubai has outpaced London as the top destination for global business travel this year, as the United Arab Emirates has seen the strongest travel recovery of any country in the world, according to data published by Travelport.
Year-to-date bookings to Dubai so far this year are outpacing 2019 levels by 14 percent, according to Travelport. That ranks it fifth in the world in terms of recovery for individual destinations, with such leisure-focused destinations as Punta Cana, Dominican Republic; Montego Bay, Jamaica; and Cancún, Mexico, topping the list. For Dubai, however, corporate travel has made up nearly a third of total bookings this year, Travelport reported.
Dubai's high vaccination rate as well as major events including Expo 2020 Dubai and the Dubai World Cup have contributed to the recovery, according to Travelport.
One other destination in the Middle East also has recovered at an even greater rate than Dubai: Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, where bookings so far this year have outpaced 2019 levels by 15 percent. Bookings in the UAE as a whole, however, are up 10 percent from 2019 levels, higher than any other country in the world, according to Travelport.
On a global scale, bookings have recovered to about two-thirds of pre-pandemic levels, Travelport indicated.