Dubai and the UAE in general are no stranger to a top 10 list, and have often been hailed as a prime place for expats and tourists alike.
It’s just nice when two big surveys come together to confirm that.
In Mastercard’s Global Destination Cities Index for 2016, Dubai was listed as the fourth best destination city worldwide.
Why? Well according to Mastercard, Dubai receives 15.27 million overnight visitors per year.
For reference, the most visited city in the world is Bangkok, with 21.47 million visitors per year.
However, Dubai’s visitors spend more. A lot more. Probably on things like this:
International overnight visitor spending in Dubai amounts to roughly Dhs115 billion per year. That’s a lot of dirhams.
London pales in comparison with an average of Dhs72.6 billion of international overnight visitor spending.
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Meanwhile, HSBC’s Expat Explorer Survey ranks the UAE as the 12th best expat destination.
Why? It seems the UAE’s expat community feels that the country offers up both good entrepreneurial and career opportunities, as well as wage growth and the ability to save money.
The UAE is safe, the quality of life is high, and the healthcare is pretty good.
For the family, expats feel that childcare quality is good, their social lives are active, and that the UAE is overall a pretty easy place to integrate into.
However, the UAE wasn’t voted the top country to live in in the Middle East, no.
Bahrain was ranked as the ninth best expat destination worldwide, beating the UAE by three places – offering up a good work-life balance, entrepreneurial opportunities, property prices, healthcare, social life and more.
The top three expat destinations were Singapore in first place, New Zealand in second and Canada in third.
Do you agree with the survey’s findings? Let us know in the comments!
Images: Getty
