| 04 Nov 2009 |
|
Dubai travel agents stay close to home
- Text size
Significantly fewer Dubai hotels and travel agents are going to the World Travel Market in London next week despite reduced costs and the fact that the UK is the emirate's largest single source of visitors, says the Dubai Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DTCM)Dubai Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DTCM)
.Seventy-seven hotels and tour operators would take part this year, down from the 102 at last year's event, the DTCMDTCM
said. The department had halved its rental rates for space at the market to encourage participation.A source at the DTCMDTCM
said a number of hotels and tour operators did not have the budgets for the event this year and were not convinced that attending the event would boost visitors, given the economic downturn in the UK. A number of hoteliers had said they were focusing their marketing efforts on countries such as India, China and the rest of the GCC.
Space at the Dubai display this year was priced at between US$10,000 (Dh36,730) and $50,000 depending on size and location, hoteliers said.
Dubai will have the same amount of space at the show as last year, but this year some of it will be used for displaying models of the new One&Only resort on the Palm Jumeirah, and a cruise sailing ship called Sea Cloud Hussar, said Saleh al Geziry, the director of overseas promotions and inward missions for the DTCMDTCM.
"A lot of companies are joining their corporate stands rather than having a stand with us," said Mr al Geziry. "It's a strategic decision."
"The Dubai stand will help attract and explore new business opportunities from the UK and Europe, which has remained the largest source market for Dubai's booming tourism industry since 2002," the DTCMDTCM said in a statement.
Mr al Geziry said the exhibition would also be used for the international launch of its "Definitely Dubai" branding campaign.
The emirate's tourism industry has been hit hard by a decline in visitors from the UK and the rest of Europe this year. In the first half of the year, the number of visitors from the UK and Ireland fell by 6.4 per cent to 391,554 from 418,151 in the same period last year, the DTCMDTCM reported.
Sea Cloud Hussar, a luxury ship under construction in Spain, is said to be the world's largest cruise ship powered by sails. A spokeswoman for Sea Cloud Cruises, which has its headquarters in Germany, confirmed that the ship would be based in Dubai for four months from December next year and sail to destinations including Abu Dhabi, Qatar and Bahrain.
By Rebecca Bundhun
© The National 2009
Zawya is a distributor (and not a publisher) of content supplied by third parties and subscribers. Any opinions, advice, statements, services, offers, or other information or content expressed or made available by those third parties, including information providers, subscribers or other users of the Service, are those of the respective author(s) or distributor(s) and not of the Company. The Company neither endorses nor is responsible for the accuracy or reliability of any opinion, advice or statement made on the Service by anyone other than authorized Service employee spokespersons while acting in their official capacities. The Company is not responsible for any infringement of intellectual property rights or breach of any applicable law or regulation, including regulation in relation to financial services or the distribution of financial products, defamation, data protection, telecommunications (including regulations relating to excessive use, spamming or other abusive activities) or obscene, offensive or illegal content). Under no circumstances will the Company be liable for any loss or damage caused by a member's reliance on information obtained through the Service. It is the responsibility of member to evaluate the accuracy, completeness or usefulness of any information, opinion, advice or other content available through the Service. Please seek the advice of professionals, as appropriate, regarding the evaluation of any specific information, opinion, advice or other content.
Read the full Member Agreement
http://www.zawya.com/legal/NewsLetter.cfm?name=disclaimer
More News in Travel & Tourism
Loading ...
Post a Comment
1.1 Contain any material which is libelous or defamatory of any person, is obscene, offensive, hateful or inflammatory or causes damage to the reputation of any person or organisation.
1.2 Promote sexually explicit material, violence, discrimination based on race, sex, religion, nationality, disability, sexual orientation or age or any illegal activity.
1.3 Be made in breach of any legal duty owed to a third party, such as a contractual duty or a duty of confidence.
1.4 Be threatening, abuse or invade another's privacy, or cause annoyance, inconvenience or needless anxiety.
1.5 Be used to impersonate any person, to misrepresent your identity or affiliation with any person, or be likely to deceive any person.
1.6 Give the impression that they represent Zawya.
1.7 Advocate, promote or assist any unlawful act such as (by way of example only) copyright infringement or computer misuse.