Dubai, March 26 (IANS): India slid from second to the third place on the list of countries sending most tourists to the United Arab Emirates (UAE), losing ground to Britain while Saudi Arabia topped the list.

India lost the second place as tourist arrivals did not increase at the same pace as that from Britain, the Khaleej Times reported on Wednesday.

Moreover, tourist arrivals to the UAE from Oman, China and Australia continued to show good growth, according to a report by Business Monitor International (BMI), which expects UAE's tourism industry to continue to expand in 2015, with a 7.6 percent year-on-year growth in tourist arrivals and 9.3 percent increase in tourism receipts.

The report predicted that total tourism receipts would cross $20 billion in 2015.

In terms of region, the Middle East looks set to remain the largest single source market for inbound tourism flows to the UAE, while taking a greater market share would be the Asia-Pacific region, with arrivals set to rise from 2.9 million in 2014 to four million in 2018.

This reflects the growing wealth in Asia, coupled with an increase in business travel and a significant number of expatriate workers coming to the UAE from nations such as India and Pakistan.

The tourism authorities in Dubai are said to be already considering ways to boost the number of tourists from China, India and Africa.

Local authorities are upbeat on the medium-term outlook for tourism.

According to Helal Saeed Almarri, director general of the Dubai department of tourism and commerce marketing (DTCM), the latest numbers "show a steady and consistent increase across the key indicators that are critical in order to achieve our Tourism Vision for 2020", which aims for welcoming 20 million tourists and generating Dh300 billion (nearly $82 billion) in tourism revenues by then.