The emirate of Dubai has attracted around 1.3 million European tourists during the first half of 2019, according to data by the Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DTCM).

The number of European tourists who visited Dubai in H1-19 accounts for 15.5% of total tourists, which their number reached 8.36 million, data showed.

The British tourists came at the top of the list among the European who visited the emirate during H1-19 with around 586,000 visitors, down 2% from 599,000 people at the end of January 2018.

The Russian visitors claimed the second spot with 375,000 visiting the GCC emirate during the first six months of 2019, versus 405,000 tourists in the corresponding period a year ago.

Meanwhile, the number of German tourists increased by 5% to 316,000, compared to 302,000 people in H1-18.

The number of French tourists who visited Dubai in the six-month period ended 30 June 2019 rose by 10% year-on-year to 204,000 people.

Moreover, Dubai has welcomed around 73,000 tourists from the Netherlands in H1-19.

On the other hand, the number of Italians who visited the emirate declined by 5% to 129,000 in H1-19 from 123,000 in the corresponding period of 2018.

The DTCM will continue boosting the main eight pillars of the tourism and travel sectors, as well as strengthening its relations with partners to develop the sector to meet the demand of tourists from all over the world, director-general of the DTCM Helal Saeed Almarri said.

It is worth noting that the number of European visitors to Dubai reached 1.01 million in the first quarter of 2019, representing 21.4% of total visitors that amounted to around 4.75 million people.