Dubai’s hotel guests rose 9% to 4.2 million in the first half of this year, which has been attributed to increased guests arrivals from Asia and the Gulf Arab region.

The emirate’s revenue rose to AED6.9bn ($1.8bn) and occupancy rose by 71.7% during the January-June period, while hotel apartments occupancy increased to 68.8% this year.

The region saw a 7% increase in new hotels to 566, while hotel rooms grew 16% to 67,369 from 58,188 rooms last year, according to the Dubai Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing.

The emirate also recorded an 18% increase in the number of tourist nights, which reached 12,462,209 nights compared with 10,541,955 during the same period last year, according to Khaleej Times.