(Reuters) - Dubai welcomed 4.88 million visitors in the period January- October 2021, its Department of Economy and Tourism (DET) said on Saturday, adding that international visitors in the month of October alone had exceeded one million.

       The figures reflect improving momentum and stability in a hospitality industry battered by the COVID-19 pandemic and resulting lockdowns, the DET said. It gave no comparable figure for the same period in 2020.

       It added that the emirate's hospitality sector had sold

       9.4 million room nights in the Jan-Oct period, up from 7 million room in the same period in 2019.

       (Reporting by Omar Fahmy, Writing by Moaz Abd-Alaziz; Editing by Gareth Jones)