Tour de force

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The Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, the last race in the season, is set to be the flagship event of the emirate’s sports toursim push.

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Many destinations separate shopping and leisure, says Abdul Rahman, but DTCM has proven the two can be combined.

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Al Nuaimi believes growth will come from the MICE sector.

The financial crisis may have dented tourism growth, but the region's governmental bodies are determined to fight on.

How has the downturn affected tourist numbers?

Eyad Ali Abdul Rahman: That's a very difficult question to answer. When we talk about tourists, Dubai is not like other destinations - we don't count domestic tourists, people who come by land, or visitors who come here to visit their families. We only count the hotel guests. We have 36 million people coming through the airport for example, but we don't count all of them.

We had 7.1 million tourists in 2008, so if we reach that number again, or even a little bit less, that would be very good. Until now it's been going OK. I hope we will make up the numbers in the summer also.

Ahmed Al Nuaimi: We received 967,000 tourists in 2007. We're still checking the final figures for 2008, but our estimation is about one million visitors. Our tourism is mainly business oriented, with 95 % of visitors coming to Qatar for business purposes.

Mubarak Al Muhairi: I don't yet have stats for 2009.

How significant a role will entertainment and leisure facilities play in generating tourism?

Abdul Rahman: Leisure will be number one, especially with the summer coming. Leisure includes shopping - other destinations say that shopping is different from leisure, but here, leisure includes shopping and entertainment.

Al Muhairi: In the future, as the destination develops and grows, entertainment and leisure facilities will play more of a role in attracting and retaining repeat visitors to Abu Dhabi. We will host the inaugural 2009 Formula 1 Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, the opening of the multi-experiential Desert Islands nature-based destination and develop Saadiyat Island, the culture district offering visitors new branches of the Guggenheim and Louvre museums.

Al Nuaimi: Qatar definitely doesn't want to attract mass tourism. Yet we're developing two major fields for periphery high-end leisure activities: culture and sports. The number of visitors coming for cultural reasons has significantly increased since the opening of the Museum of Islamic Art last December. The Museum is a new driving force for the country as a cultural destination and as a symbol for Qatar.

In addition to the Souq Waqif renovation, a cultural village is soon to open and new museums are under way, such as the New National Museum of Qatar and the Museum for Contemporary Arab Art. The Tribeca Film Festival will be also coming to Doha in November 2009.

What have you been doing to promote tourism in view of the downturn?

Abdul Rahman: We saw this crisis coming globally; it started in the US and Europe and now it has affected us, because Dubai is a very big and strong global city. So now we've decided to start some promotions.

Al Muhairi: Our first step was to gather enough information to allow us to form a view on how severe the impact will be. A key theme which we've adopted is to focus on our longer term goals and objectives, but also to have the capacity to respond to shorter term issues as they arise. We will be working with the tourism industry on appropriate tactical plans that strengthen our tourism business.

Al Nuaimi: We're not looking to attract mass tourism, but rather a specific niche within the market. If we catered to every tourist demographic, that would force us to lose our identity. Instead we've built our infrastructure to support a very specific demographic, and that is business and high-end leisure tourism. Our strategy hasn't changed due to the current economic climate.

We launched it last November, when the economic downturn had already started. Because of Qatar's very stable economy and business-oriented tourism, we attract a lot of visitors who want to know about new opportunities, especially during this economic situation. To date, all scheduled conferences and exhibitions have taken place.

What is the focus of your current marketing strategy?

Abdul Rahman: We have a few promotions happening. The first one was a national programme in January and February, when we offered hotel discounts up to 60%, and tour operator and services discounts.

The second promotion is Keep Discovering Dubai. This programme will host 2000 people - the biggest tour operators around the world and the media - to show them what we have in Dubai. The feedback from people who have already been was excellent.

We are now working very closely with the hoteliers to do a very big summer campaign, focusing on added value, like pay for two nights, get one night free for example. That will be for the summer and for Ramadan. We are also working on the period after Ramadan up to the end of this year. We will have four promotions this year to help the destinations here - but I don't want to say help of course, these destinations are already very big.

Al Muhairi: We're expanding our marketing by targeting discerning tourists who have an interest in heritage and culture. For instance, in 2009, we're planning to expand our overseas promotions and will mount Abu Dhabi pavilions at 17 overseas exhibitions across 11 countries - that's three more than last year. We're also taking part in additional shows in China and Italy.

This shows our commitment to the growing Chinese market, which is currently achieving outbound MICE business of more than €10 billion a year (US$ 13.6 billion). This business is predicted to increase five-fold by 2020.

Al Nuaimi: We're marketing a country named Qatar. The objective is to promote Qatar to the upscale international market, by focusing on travellers from the high-end business and leisure sectors.

As per our new strategy launched in November 2008, we're rather B2B-focused, as we're mainly a MICE oriented country. We'll promote our strategy and our new infrastructure through exhibitions abroad - including eight exhibitions this year - road shows, and new advertising and communication campaigns targeted towards travel and tourism and professionals. We're targeting tourism industry growth in Qatar by 20% in the next five years.

Which source markets are you targeting most aggressively?

Abdul Rahman: The UK is number one, but when we market Dubai there we do it differently from Germany, because everybody is different. For example, in Germany they like beachside hotels, but in France they like culture. When we go to the GCC we market the family angle; the theme parks, the shopping, the skiing. We split our tourism in four segments - leisure tourism, business , sport and health tourism.

Al Muhairi: Our main markets are the Middle East, UK and Germany with other European, Asian and the Australian market also expanding as destination awareness grows.

Given the healthy prognosis for business tourism, we believe the demand will continue. Abu Dhabi doesn't intend to become a mass market leisure dominated destination. We'll continue to develop at the premium end of the spectrum in a way that is sustainable and culturally appropriate. Our hotels are currently running at 85-90% occupancy and hoteliers remain bullish about their prospects for 2009.

Al Nuaimi: Our main markets are currently high-end visitors from Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. In addition, with new flights operated by Qatar Airways to the United States and next year to Australia, we will reach new markets, where we are already receiving a strong interest. Qatar is also becoming a key location between Europe and Asia.

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