Dubai named the most viewed travel destination on TikTok

A news study looking at travel hotspots popular with Gen Z named the emirate as the top city on the video sharing app

A general view of Atlantis resort in Dubai January 19, 2013. A unit of Dubai World has sold its Atlantis resort, which sits on a palm tree-shaped island in the Gulf, in an asset shuffle between state entities to help the group meet huge debt repayments after a $25 billion restructuring in 2011. Investment Corp of Dubai (ICD), a holding company which controls some of the emirate's top firms, has bought the resort from the unit, Istithmar World, for an undisclosed sum, ICD said on December 5, 2013. Picture taken January 19, 2013. REUTERS/Mohammed Omar (UNITED ARAB EMIRATES - Tags: BUSINESS TRAVEL CITYSCAPE)
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Dubai has been named the most viewed travel destination on TikTok, amassing more than 92 billion views on the video sharing app.

The emirate came out on top in a list of global travel destinations, put together by website airportparkingreservations.com.

The data looked at the number of views for major global cities, with Dubai coming out way in front. Researchers credited the city’s legion of attractions, such as Burj Khalifa and Atlantis, The Palm, as making it a content hotspot.

Barcelona came in second with 61.3 billion views, helped by tourist hotspots including Basilica de la Sagrada Familia and Camp Nou stadium, home of Barcelona FC.

Coming in third place was UK capital London, with 42.7 billion TikTok views. The city’s art and culture landmarks and museums proved to be content hotspots, as well as its architecture, parks and green spaces.

However, London came out on top with Instagram users, with more than 158 million posts tagging the destination on the social media site.

The broader study looked to focus specifically on cities that are popular with Gen Z travellers, and took in several other factors aside from social media views to give cities an overall global ranking, including safety rating, Google search volume, attractions and restaurants per 100,000 people and hostels.

Dubai ranked in third place overall, with a rating of 7.1 out of 10. Barcelona came just ahead with 7.26, and London being named the overall the best city for Gen Z travellers. Paris and Amsterdam rounded out the top five. Prague, Berlin, Rome, Milan and Bangkok made up the top 10.

It is not the first time Dubai has performed favourably in travel lists in 2022. In July, it was named as the most popular city break destination in the world by hotel chain Premier Inn.

The emirate was coveted for its “glorious sunshine and glistening, luxurious lifestyle”, and was the number one choice for travellers from 21 countries.

Some of Dubai's most popular tourist destinations — in pictures

Updated: November 23, 2022, 1:29 PM