Dubai plans to introduce free transit visas for travellers passing through its ports in a bid to attract well-heeled tourists. From coming winter, the new visa scheme will give passengers free access to Dubai for 48 hours which can be extended to 96 hours by paying a small fee.

“In the past few years, only about 30 per cent of Indians travelling through Dubai ventured out to visit the city,” said Issam Kazim, CEO, Dubai Corporation for Tourism and Commerce Marketing.

According to official figures, around 2.6 million tourists from India travelled to Dubai in 2017.

This year, till July, the country witnessed a growth of 2.2 per cent in the volume of Indian travellers over the same period last year.

Kazim said Dubai Tourism aims to tap the people with high disposable income in smaller Indian cities.

“The thing with the smaller cities is that we have a market that is hungry for travel. For them, most of whom are first time international travellers, Dubai can be a perfect destination. This is because it is not only very close to India but has a similar culture too,” said a Dubai Tourism official.

To further promote the city, Dubai Tourism plans to hold roadshows in 11 Indian cities.

“In November, we will be planning our third trip, which will focus on the northen part of the country. Earlier, in March we reached out to the southern part and in July we covered the western region of India,” said the official.

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