China becomes Dubai's fourth largest tourists source market

BEIJING - China has become Dubai's fourth largest source market of tourists as more Chinese people travel overseas.

About 857,000 Chinese tourists visited Dubai in 2018, up 12 percent year on year, according to Dubai's tourism authority.

The strong momentum continued into the first month of this year, with about 100,000 Chinese people touring the Middle East city, up 25.1 percent year on year.

The Dubai tourism authority attributed the robust inflow of Chinese tourists to a string of friendly policies, including granting visa-free entry status, allowing driving with a Chinese driver license and holding celebrations for Chinese traditional festivals.

Dubai has stepped up its efforts to attract more Chinese visitors in recent years. It inked partnerships with Chinese telecom giant Huawei, tech titan Tencent and online travel agency Fliggy last year to leverage their technologies and platforms to improve brand awareness and tourism services.