Abu Dhabi, December 21: Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority (ADTA), which manages, helps develop and promotes the emirate’s tourism industry, is to step up its destination international promotional programme in 2010.
The authority is to mount destination pavilions at 20 overseas fairs next year – three more than this year – with first-time participation in exhibitions in the emerging markets of India, Spain and Malaysia. And in a move to spur stakeholders on to engage in the intensified programme, the authority is pegging its industry participation fees for major fairs to take into account market maturity and discounting those for emerging markets from between 11%-50%.
“Trade and consumer shows are important tools for destinations and the products within to disseminate their offers, engage with in-market distribution partners and ultimately to generate business. They are particularly important forums for emerging destinations such as ours which are building awareness and forging new partnerships,” said Mubarak Al Nuaimi, ADTA’s International Promotions Manager.
“We recognise that individual levels of interest in industry participation, driven by perceptions of market relevance, return on investment and global economic conditions, may vary. In many cases larger, well-established shows in mature markets will be more popular than their equivalents in emerging or growth markets.
“ADTA as a destination marketing authority is charged with building and maintaining Abu Dhabi’s presence across a balanced and diversified portfolio of markets including those in maturing, growth and emerging phases. To ensure we have a significant footprint on the international promotional calendar which truly reflects the strength of Abu Dhabi’s tourism offer we are prepared to consider temporary discounting participation fees for shows in some growth or emerging markets. “
ADTA’s 2010 International Promotions Programme spans 11 countries and includes first-time participation in three key trade and consumer tourism exhibitions – Spain’s FITUR and India’s SATTE, both of which will be held in January, and MATTA in Malaysia, which takes place in March. “In each of these emerging markets our target visitor segment will be the hi-end luxury and cultural seeker who will be far more attuned with our offering present, and future,” said Al Nuaimi.
“India is already proving to be a significant market for Abu Dhabi with 44,991 of its nationals staying in hotels throughout the emirate in the first nine months of this year, accounting for almost 4% of hotel guests during that period,” explained Al Nuaimi. “In the first nine months of this year India was Abu Dhabi’s fourth most productive market in terms of hotel guests, largely driven by the business and visiting friends/relatives (VFR) segments. Nonetheless, our research shows that market awareness of Abu Dhabi as a tourism destination is still relatively limited, especially among the rapidly-expanding middle-upper income classes and we are looking to address this gap.
“In the case of Spain and Malaysia, although both are smaller markets accounting in the first nine months of this year for 4,662 and 3,856 respectively, both have substantial prospects and are also gateways hubs for the Iberian and Southeast Asian regions. In the case of Spain its nine months performance is up 33% on the same period last year which would suggest there is a market to be nurtured. In the case of Malaysia, non-stop air links with the country have recently been greatly enhanced with the launch of five flights a week from Kuala Lumpur to Abu Dhabi by Air Asia X, which enables Abu Dhabi to tap into its vast Asia-Pacific network. ”
—Agencies