Abu Dhabi bags brace of tourism accolades

Abu Dhabi's most popular tourist attraction and the destination's growing status as a leading tourism hub have been recognised in two global independent travel surveys.

The Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi city has been ranked by the globe's largest online travel community as the world's fourth most popular landmark attraction.

The ranking, which sees the Abu Dhabi landmark lined up alongside a world of ancient wonders and modern marvels including Machu Picchu in Peru, the Taj Mahal in India and ahead of the Vatican's St. Peters Basilica, the Eiffel Tower and the Great Wall of China, comes in TripAdvisor's 2015 Travellers' Choice Awards, according to the Abu Dhabi Tourism and Culture Authority, TCA Abu Dhabi.

The Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque welcomed 4.3 million visitors and worshippers in 2014, making it the single-most visited tourism attraction in the emirate, and previously featured in TripAdvisor's top 25 attractions as one of the world's most talked-about attractions.

Meanwhile, the growing popularity of the emirate's attractions, experiences and hospitality sector have also been recognised in the MasterCard Global Destination Cities Index.

Abu Dhabi has been ranked the third fastest-growing destination city overall between 2009 and 2015, behind Sri Lanka's capital, Colombo, and Chengdu, the provincial capital of China's Sichuan province. Also featured in the list are the Saudi Arabian capital, Riyadh, the Japanese cities of Osaka and Tokyo, and other leading Asian cities in China, Taiwan and Vietnam.

"Abu Dhabi's growth on the global tourism stage has been exceptional and to receive such high praise from TripAdvisor's independent community of travellers speaks volumes for the quality of experience visitors can have when they visit," said Sultan Al Dhaheri, Acting Executive Director of Tourism at TCA Abu Dhabi.

"The Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque is an architectural masterpiece which welcomes visitors from across the globe, and it is a remarkable feat to be recognised among the world's most illustrious structures and historical sites.

"Prospects for the future also look good, stimulated by rapid growth of the emirate's tourism sector by travel from within the GCC, Europe, the USA and particularly from east Asia, where we hope to continue to capitalise on the strong growth in visitor numbers from the outbound travel market from China which seems to be driving global growth according to this most recent survey," added Al Dhaheri.

The MasterCard Index of Global Destination Cities ranks cities in terms of the number of their total international overnight visitor arrivals and the cross-border spending by these same visitors in the destination cities.

Driven by insights into travel patterns, the Global Destinations Cities Index provides a ranking of the 132 most visited cities around the world.