Dubai Tourism is optimistic about maintaining a steady growth of 13 to 15% in Indian visitations and overnights to Dubai in coming years. They expect India, the top source market for them as per 2017 statistics, to be a vital contributor to their targeted 20 million international visitations by 2020.
In an informal chat with the media on the sidelines of the first Dubai Leisure road show in Delhi, Khalid Al Awar, Manager – India & Pakistan ( International Operations), Dubai Tourism, said that the priority is to “get the messaging tailor-made” for each market in India to attract every segment of travellers to Dubai. He said that Dubai is a constantly evolving destination and regular education and updation is required to keep the trade partners and travellers informed about new developments. Talking about the highly successful ‘BeMyGuest’ marketing campaign with Shahrukh Khan, he said that each video was made to target a specific travel segment.
“Our aim to become the biggest family destination in the world,” he said.
India contributed 2.1 million room nights to Dubai in 2017 which was a 15.2% growth over 2016.
Asked about the strategy to engage the travel trade in India, Awar said that they want every travel agent in India to become a “Dubai Specialist” with all the updated information about the destination. He said that they will have added incentives for agents to be a specialist.
Commenting on the Dubai Specialist programme, Priyanka Nijhawan, Director – Representations, Nijhawan Group said that the newly upgraded specialist programme will have additional incentives soon to enlist “real experts”. She said that these added incentives will be announced soon.
With Delhi, Dubai Tourism has concluded the 11-city road show in India this year. 18 suppliers from Dubai comprising luxury hotels, attractions, DMCs participated in the road show.