Today's Edition
ABU DHABI (WAM)
The Ministry of Economy and Tourism announced the conclusion of the sixth edition of the World’s Coolest Winter campaign, which launched on December 16 and ran for six weeks under the slogan “Our Winter is Entrepreneurial.”
The campaign was implemented through collaboration between the Ministry and tourism authorities across the UAE’s emirates, as part of the UAE Strategy for Domestic Tourism launched by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE, and Ruler of Dubai, aimed at developing an integrated, nationwide tourism ecosystem.
The campaign successfully achieved its core objectives of highlighting the UAE’s tourism attractions, including islands, beaches and nature reserves, as well as natural, urban, heritage, and cultural landmarks.
It also spotlighted tourism experiences led by entrepreneurs and startups, presenting their success stories and their pivotal role in delivering innovative tourism offerings.
The campaign underscored the growing contribution of entrepreneurship to enriching the UAE’s tourism experience, while supporting entrepreneurs and enhancing the visibility of their products and services within winter destinations and activities.
His Excellency Abdulla bin Touq Al Marri, Minister of Economy and Tourism, said that the latest success of the World’s Coolest Winter campaign in its sixth edition serves as a strong indicator of the promising investment opportunities within the UAE’s tourism sector, a key pillar of the nation’s vision to build a strong and sustainable economy.
He noted that the campaign continues to reinforce the UAE’s position as a cohesive tourism destination, adding that fostering coordination and integration among the tourism entities of the seven emirates helps enhance the UAE’s tourism appeal and increase the sector’s contribution to national GDP in line with the objectives of the We the UAE 2031 vision.
His Excellency added that the campaign’s success reflects growing confidence in the quality and competitiveness of the UAE’s domestic tourism product and its ability to attract diverse audiences from around the world, further strengthening the sector’s unique advantages and its capacity for global leadership as a year-round destination.
The campaign, under the theme Our Winter is Entrepreneurial, demonstrated that the tourism sector has made remarkable progress in adopting innovative models centred on empowering Emirati entrepreneurs and startups to become the sector’s primary growth engines, he added.
Bin Touq Al Marri affirmed the Ministry’s commitment to sustaining this entrepreneurial approach by fostering an enabling environment that allows youth to transform ideas into world-class tourism experiences, ensuring sustainable sector growth and positioning innovation and entrepreneurship as defining features of the UAE’s future tourism identity.
Positive Results
Bin Touq Al Marri noted that the sixth edition of the World’s Coolest Winter campaign delivered positive results across all seven emirates. Hotel revenues reached Dh12.5 billion, while the total number of hotel guests surpassed 5 million, up 5% compared to the previous edition. Hotel occupancy rates reached 84%, representing a 2% increase compared to the same period last year.
He added that the campaign achieved more than 300 million views worldwide, with a reach exceeding 1.5 billion people. The campaign has shown increased reliance on content creators, with 53 local and international creators collaborating on the campaign.
Engagement with campaign-produced videos exceeded 1.8 million interactions, creating strong momentum for deeper integration and closer cooperation among tourism authorities, and reinforcing a unified, team-based approach to developing exceptional experiences and projects that enhance the richness of the national tourism sector and the distinctiveness of destinations across each emirate, thereby cementing the UAE’s position as a leading global tourism destination.
Boosting Innovative Tourism Products
Beyond stimulating domestic tourism in captivating destinations across the UAE’s emirates and cities, the sixth edition of the World’s Coolest Winter campaign aimed to spotlight tourism initiatives, experiences, and products led by entrepreneurs and startups.
It also sought to strengthen the presence of innovative, entrepreneurship-driven tourism products among the most sought-after winter destinations and activities, while empowering tourism entrepreneurs to unlock opportunities for excellence, growth, expansion, and access to a broad audience of visitors and tourists.
The campaign also aimed to encourage investment in domestic tourism projects, which serve as a major catalyst for maximising the sector’s positive economic impact. It focused on promoting the diversity and promising potential of green tourism across the UAE, while highlighting the competitiveness and appeal of natural, environmental, and agricultural destinations, supporting domestic tourism among citizens and residents and driving sustained growth in international visitor arrivals.
Through extensive media and marketing content disseminated across traditional media and social platforms, the campaign reached millions of people in the UAE and worldwide, promoting innovative tourism offerings, pioneering and non-conventional projects, and the UAE’s vast diversity of environments, features, and unique tourism activities.
The campaign also showcased a range of startup initiatives developed by young Emirati entrepreneurs that achieved notable success in tourism promotion and in developing seamless travel experiences - from trip planning to immersive tourism journeys - as well as in creating products and services across the tourism, travel, and hospitality sectors, leveraging advanced technologies to enhance innovation and sectoral appeal.
Accelerated Growth of Tourism Sector
The campaign highlighted the accelerated growth of the UAE’s tourism and travel sector, alongside the continued achievements in strengthening the sector’s appeal and expanding its contribution to the national economy. It also underscored the UAE’s strong commitment to supporting entrepreneurship and innovation, expanding opportunities for youth, and reinforcing an enabling environment for small and medium-sized enterprises.
The UAE’s civil aviation sector delivered a record performance last year. Passenger traffic across the country’s airports is projected to reach approximately 159 million by the end of 2025, marking a growth of over 7.5% compared to 2024, which recorded 147.8 million passengers. By the end of September 2025, Abu Dhabi Airports, Dubai International Airport, and Sharjah International Airport collectively handled around 108.59 million passengers.
The UAE tourism sector continued to deliver exceptional growth, with hotel revenues growing to approximately Dh44.4 billion during the January-November 2025 period. This represented a 8.8% growth compared to the same period of 2024, driven by higher average daily rates. Hotels welcomed around 29.1 million guests, a 5.2% increase, while hotel nights grew 6% to over 99.4 million nights compared to the same period in 2024.
Hotel occupancy rates reached 79.5% during the January-November 2025 period, with average stays of 3.42 nights. This coincided with improved capacity, as the number of hotels rose to 1,260 hotels offering around 216,900 hotel rooms.
In 2025, the UAE achieved further landmark successes in tourism, ranking among the world’s top seven destinations for international tourist spending and leading globally across several aviation and travel competitiveness indicators, notably air transport infrastructure quality.
The UAE also marked a historic milestone with the election of Shaikha Al Nowais as the first woman globally and the first Emirati to serve as Secretary-General of the United Nations World Tourism Organisation for the 2026–2029 term. Masfout Village in the Emirate of Ajman won the Best Tourism Village in the World award for 2025 from the UN World Tourism Organiation, following competition with 270 villages from 65 countries. The city of Al Ain was also named the Capital of Arab Tourism for 2026.
