MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Dubai's luxury tourism boom is changing how visitors get around

Sheikh Zayed Road and the Burj Khalifa at night — Photo: Unsplash

Dubai has just had its third record year in a row. According to the Department of Economy and Tourism, it took 19.59 million international overnight visitors in 2025, against 18.72 million the year before, and around 1.4 million of them, about 7%, were from the Americas. South America's share of that should grow, because getting there is a lot easier now.

Emirates went daily on its Dubai, Rio de Janeiro and Buenos Aires route at the end of October 2025, and São Paulo already had a daily A380, so from most of Brazil and Argentina it's now one flight. People making that trip tend to spend money once they get there, on a beach hotel, a dinner out in the desert, a day or two at the malls.

A car that is part of the holiday

The bit that has changed is how people get around once they've landed. Taxis and ride-hailing apps are easy to find in Dubai, so for years renting a car was mostly something residents and business travellers did. Not anymore. You'll now find supercars, big SUVs and luxury saloons on the same rental lists as the economy hatchbacks, and quite a few tourists see the car as part of the holiday rather than a way to get from the hotel to the beach.

Much of that demand starts at the arrivals hall. Travellers comparing luxury car rental Dubai airport options can now see offers from several local rental companies side by side, with the total price for the dates, the deposit (or no deposit) and the daily mileage allowance shown for each car. Depending on the supplier, the vehicle is collected at the terminal or delivered to the hotel, which saves a taxi ride on the first evening.

Why bother when taxis are so easy? Partly it's the roads. Sheikh Zayed Road runs right by the Burj Khalifa and the financial district, Abu Dhabi's an hour and a half down the highway, and up in Ras Al Khaimah the Jebel Jais road has more hairpins than most people will ever need. Then there's the car itself, plenty of people just want a few days in something they'll never own at home.

What visitors should check before they book

Renting a car in the UAE isn't complicated, but first-timers tend to get caught out on the same four things:

- Age, because a lot of the luxury and sports cars are only handed over to drivers who are 25 or older, even though the normal minimum is 21.

- Paperwork, which means passport, visa or entry stamp and licence, plus an international driving permit for some nationalities, so look that up before you fly rather than at the desk.

- The deposit and the mileage cap, which change a lot from one rental company to the next, and a return run to Abu Dhabi will use a few hundred kilometres of it.

- Tolls and fines, since the Salik gates have no booths and just photograph each car, and the rental company adds those charges and any speeding tickets to the bill later.

They drive on the right, same as in Brazil and Argentina, and the big highways are wide with good signs, so it's an easier change than driving in a lot of European cities.

A trend set in the Gulf

Dubai usually sets the pace for tourism in the region and the premium rental market is going the same way. Driving yourself in a luxury car used to be a niche thing, now it's part of how the city sells itself, next to yacht charters and desert camps.

For people in the Southern Cone, the takeaway is fairly simple. With flights every day, a Dubai holiday or stopover is easier to plan than a few years ago, and if you want to hire a vehicle for part of it, compare the deposit and mileage terms before you land, not at the counter.