(2nd) Top of the chops: According to the Tripadvisor Traveller’s Choice Awards, Dubai’s reputation as a global dining destination is now firmly cemented in the minds of tourists
Like noisy chewers, you can’t ignore the rise of food tourism. It’s a vacation variable that’s projected to make a 20 per cent year-on-year increase through to 2030 (Precedence Research (2025)). These are trips where tourists point to culinary experiences being a ‘key factor’ in choosing their holiday destination.
The World Food Travel Association (WFTA) say that, on average, travellers spend about 25 per cent of their total holiday budget on food, and more than half of the gastronauts who are travelling ‘specifically for food’, will book their restaurant reservations before their flights.
But what’s driving this trend? We all love a tasty burger, but that’s always been the case. The big change seems to be the inspiration material, the explosion of foodie-forward, ‘come with me’ social media content and a generation of millennials that circle the globe seeking novel adventures, and extravagant cheese pulls.
Habibi, come dine in Dubai
And there’s a natural synergy here with the UAE. There are of course many reasons to visit Dubai, but the culinary landscape has undergone seismic changes in the last decade. It’s no longer simply a city attracting Michelin awarded chefs and brands from other gastronomic epicentres. It’s now undeniably a fiery furnace of homegrown culinary innovation – batch baking world class restaurants that celebrate regional produce and locally-based talent.
That’s one of the central reasons why it was ranked so highly in a recent Tripadvisor Traveller’s Choice Awards. Dubai took a well-earned silver medal (with eyes still firmly focused on the gold) in the ‘Best of the Best Destinations 2026’ food ranking. The list is user-generated and derives from ‘above-and-beyond’ reviews, recorded in the Tripadvisor digital community.
The best of the rest
London topped the list (as a Londoner myself, wild take but let’s go with it); Rome was in third place; Hong Kong took home a respectable fourth place; Paris was in fifth; Majorca in sixth; Doha was seventh; Crete, eighth; Bangkok was ninth; and Marrakech rounds out the Tripadvisor top ten.
Images: What’s On
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