Etihad Airways and the Department of Culture and Tourism – Abu Dhabi (DCT Abu Dhabi) have revealed that users of the “Abu Dhabi Stopover Program” have increased by 76% compared to the previous year.
In 2025, it recorded 25,000 bookings in four months, a 47% increase compared to the same period of the previous year. The number of visitors during the same period surged to 44,000, a 76% increase. It has been particularly popular among travelers from India, Japan, and South Korea.
The number of stopover users was 12,000 in 2023, 85,000 in 2024, and is expected to surpass 130,000 in 2025. There is a tendency for those who visited Abu Dhabi for a short stopover to return for a longer vacation.
From March, a new digital “Abu Dhabi Pass” was introduced, offering benefits such as a SIM with 10GB data, unlimited rides on hop-on-hop-off buses covering public buses and major tourist spots, and discounts at major attractions and restaurants.
As part of its tourism strategy, Abu Dhabi aims to attract 39.3 million visitors, create 178,000 jobs in the tourism sector, and contribute 90 billion UAE dirhams to the GDP by 2030.
