With Dubai expected to attract 15 million tourists per year by 2010, experts have predicted that in-bound business and leisure tourism to Dubai will contribute 20 per cent of UAE’s GDP in five years – up from 12 per cent currently.

The most recent Dubai survey by TRI Hospitality Consulting revealed there will be 9,628 rooms available by 2008, with hundreds of hotel expansions planned on the Jumeirah and Jebel Ali Palm islands and seven hotel and resort developments on the Jumeirah coastline.

Speaking at the Middle East Economic Digest conference, Major Project Development in Dubai, Hilton International’s vice president for the Arabian Peninsula region, Rudi Jagersbacher, said that “with more than 105 airlines providing direct links from Dubai to 160 worldwide destinations, it is not difficult to find the rationale for the wealth of hotel-related projects in Dubai.”

In 2004, Dubai reported its hotel sector had experienced occupancy of more than 90 per cent.