Dubai moves higher in global city visitors ranking

The Gulf Arab emirate ranked fourth, up from the fifth last year, in this year's global destination cities index by credit card provider Mastercard on Wednesday, Dubai daily Emirates 24/7 reported.

According to the Mastercard report, Dubai is poised to welcome 14.46 million international visitors, one notch before Istanbul and one rank behind Paris.

By 2020, when the Gulf Arab emirate hosts world Expo 2020, Dubai aims to welcome over 20 million visitors, double the number in 2012.

The official Dubai tourism body DTCM said that Chinese tourists shall be a major source market to reach the 20 million mark by 2020.

According to DTCM, the number of Chinese tourists grew by 25 percent year on year in 2014, attracting 344,000 people. Dubai's top source markets are Saudi Arabia, India, Britain, Russia and Germany. Enditem