Dubai’s Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing announced that 7 million people visited the city in the first half of 2015. According to the department, Dubai witnessed a 9 percent increase in tourism flow since last year, according to Khabar Khaleeji .
DTCM praised the city's infrastructure and public transportation system in place, saying that it played an important role in tourists' first impressions of Dubai, in addition to offering two of the most important elements in travel: safety and relaxation. The availability of amenable public transportation like the metro, which has stations throughout the city and at key malls, or the taxi services, provide tourists with more accessibility.
This recent surge is part of a new strategy approved in May 2013 that would see 20 million tourists visit per year by 2020. The strategy, dubbed Tourism Vision 2020, will serve to drive visitor growth through different initiatives such as "covering regulatory policy, infrastructure development, product offering enhancement, and destination marketing investments."