Dubai Tourism Abuzz With Activity

Charmaine Fernz - Mumbai

Carl Vaz A new medium of promotion that we plan to tap this year is the web, which is being used very extensively in the Indian travel market

As per industry sources, there has been a 20 per cent growth approximately in the Indian outbound season this year and Indian travellers are always on the look for something new and exciting. Considering the development and buoyant market, Dubai tourism is all set to grab a good share of this outbound pie. Explains Carl Vaz, country manager, Dubai Representative Office in India, Department of Tourism ad Commerce Marketing (DTCM), Government of Dubai, "There is a host of activities lined up for the coming months. To start off, we are in the process of marketing the Dubai Summer Surprises that begins on June 22 and goes on till September. Then starting June to August, our focus shifts to southern India, where we would be holding a roadshow cum presentation in Kochi, Trivandrum, Coimbatore and Chennai. By conducting these events in southern India, we want to strengthen our focus in the market. In July, we would be participating in a few exhibitions and then in August, we would be conducting some events in Kolkata. All these activities will only help us intensify our presence in the Indian market."

Elaborating further on current activities Vaz said, "Though, North and West India are our key markets, smaller cities such as Indore, Raipur, Lucknow, Chandigarh, Ludhiana, Ahmedabad, Baroda and Nagpur also contribute significantly. To substantiate this fact, we recently held a Dubai Extravaganza in Nagpur along with Nova Tours & Travels. This was a two-week extravaganza which included a food festival in two restaurants and quite a few Dubai packages as prizes. The reason for holding an event in Nagpur is that the city has the highest concentration of millionaires and has a very up-market and trendy clientele who are well-travelled. In the coming months, we plan to explore the Punjab and Amritsar markets. Recently, we conducted a joint promotion with Fame Ad Labs in Mumbai along with SOTC, who was our travel sponsor"

Elucidating future strategies, Vaz added, "For the year 2004, we received 350,000 tourists, which is a growth rate of eight per cent over 2003 and for 2005, our target is 400,000 tourists. With increased connectivity, Dubai hotels are experiencing a high occupancy and a peak like never before. On our tourist promotions, we are focusing on the desert safaris in a big way, which has been quite successful and the next on line are the Dow Cruise Dinners, which is slowly picking up. This year, we plan to focus on promoting the Dubai Ski Dome, it is the world's third largest indoor ski dome, the Mall of Emirates, which is the world's largest shopping mall and would be completed by September 2006 and the IBN Batuta, a stylised mall representing various country courts and boasting various region specific produce."

Vaz concluded, "Though there is so much on offer, all of these new products are being absorbed. Another medium of promotion that we plan to tap this year is the web, which is being used very extensively nowadays. We would look at joint promotions with Indian portals to that extent. And last but not the least, with the current partial open sky policy and increased connectivity on a long term perspective, we are looking at targeting 900,000 tourists from India by 2010."