01 — The outbound ledger
The UAE publishes no official count of residents’ trips abroad. What exists is the balance of payments: the IMF’s December 2025 Article IV staff report carries the travel-debit line — what UAE residents spend on travel outside the country.
| Measure | Value | Scope · source |
|---|---|---|
| Travel debits, 2024 (est.) | $31.1bn | IMF Article IV, Dec 2025 — balance-of-payments travel line |
| Travel debits, 2025 (proj.) | $33.3bn | Same series; ≈+7% YoY |
| Travel debits, 2026 (proj.) | $36.0bn | Same series |
| Trip counts | no official series | Any headcount found online is a private estimate — none is quoted here |
02 — The inbound mirror
Dubai is the counted emirate: the Department of Economy and Tourism publishes the overnight-visitor ledger monthly. The 2025 close, from the 9 February 2026 release:
| Measure | Value | Scope · source |
|---|---|---|
| International overnight visitors | 19.59M +5% | DET, 2025 — third consecutive annual record; 2024: 18.72M |
| December 2025 | 2.04M | First month above two million visitors in the emirate’s history |
| Source mix | W.Europe 4.1M (21%) · GCC 2.99M · CIS & E.Europe 2.89M · S.Asia 2.89M | DET region split, 2025; NE&SE Asia 1.85M, Americas 1.40M, MENA 2.17M |
| Hotel base | 154,264 rooms · 827 establishments | DET, end-2025 |
| Hotel performance | occ 80.7% · ADR AED 579 (+8%) · RevPAR AED 467 (+11%) | DET, 2025; average stay 3.7 nights |
03 — Gateways and ports
One airport does the heavy lifting of a nation.
| Measure | Value | Scope · source |
|---|---|---|
| Dubai International (DXB) | 95.2M pax +3.1% | Dubai Airports, 2025 — busiest year ever recorded; world’s No.1 for international traffic, 11th straight year (ACI) |
| DXB December | 8.7M pax | Busiest month in DXB history; Q4: 25.1M |
| DXB 2026 outlook | 99.5M pax | Dubai Airports guidance, Feb 2026; 108 airlines on the field |
04 — TIO coverage of United Arab Emirates
Everything the office publishes on the country, one click away:
Sources. Government of Dubai Media Office / Dubai Department of Economy and Tourism (9 Feb 2026) · Dubai Airports annual release (11 Feb 2026) · ACI World rankings · IMF Article IV staff report for the UAE (Dec 2025) — its travel-debit figures are staff projections, labelled. Airport figures are total passengers (all traffic); visitor figures are overnight visitors to the emirate of Dubai only — the two perimeters never mix on this page.