Abu Dhabi plans tourism promotion in Saudi
Abu Dhabi, April 14, 2013
Abu Dhabi’s tourism industry is planning a week-long promotion of the destination and its expanding offering in Saudi Arabia later this month.
The destination sales blitz begins at the Riyadh Travel Fair – the kingdom’s leading tourism trade show, which runs at the Four Seasons Hotel – Kingdom Tower in the Saudi capital from April 23-26. The Abu Dhabi delegation will then move on to road show presentations to the Saudi travel trade in Riyadh, Dammam and Jeddah.
The promotion, organised by Abu Dhabi Tourism & Culture Authority (TCA Abu Dhabi), is being supported by a range of industry stakeholders including hotels and resorts, Etihad Airways, headline attractions and a unique integrated wellness facility on Saadiyat Island.
“We have superb airlift from Saudi Arabia to Abu Dhabi with three providers – Etihad Airways, Saudi Arabian Airlines and Nasair – now servicing a combined total of 68 scheduled non-stop flights a week from the kingdom,” said Mubarak Al Nuami, director, promotions and overseas offices, TCA Abu Dhabi.
“This give us huge potential to attract Saudi visitors to our emirate where we believe our product mix will meet their specific needs – one of our main focuses now is to make this target audience fully aware of the fact that there is now so much more to see and do in Abu Dhabi and to persuade them to stay with us longer than they currently do on average.”
Saudi Arabia is currently Abu Dhabi’s sixth largest overseas source market for hotel guests. In the first two months of this year some 12,322 Saudis stayed in the emirate’s 141 hotels and hotel apartments and delivered 27,256 guest nights. They stayed, on average, 2.25 nights.
“The average-length-of-stay of our Saudi guests is short – although it has been showing signs of increasing lately,” said Al Nuaimi. “Yet the destination’s offering has grown significantly so it is just a question of getting the news out to stimulate demand,” said Mubarak Al Shamisi, country manager Saudi Arabia, TCA Abu Dhabi. – TradeArabia News Service
