Dubai Tourism embarks on its first-ever road show to East Africa with 14 Dubai partners
Dubai’s Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (Dubai Tourism) and 14 of its partners will hold a multi-destination road show across three East African cities to showcase new and upcoming family attractions, experiences and hotels in Dubai. The road show, which also includes tour operators, kicked off in in Kampala today and arrives in Nairobi on 27th August at Radisson Blu Upper Hill Hotel, before heading to Dar es Salaam.
This marks the first time that Dubai Tourism has organised a road show in East Africa, generating an opportunity for local operators to meet directly with the gulf city’s top partners.
The 14 co-participants are made up of top brands including airlines such as flydubai, Emirates Airline and Kenya Airways, as well as hotel groups Address Hotels, Rove Hotels, Time Hotels and Crowne Plaza and resorts featured by Arabian Falcon Holidays.
Key destination services companies include Alpha Tours, Rayna Tourism, Red Apple Middle East Tourism, North Tours and Connect World Travel & Tourism. Global Village, a leading family, cultural, shopping and entertainment destination in the Gulf region, and a popular attraction with Africans visiting Dubai, will also be joining the delegates to showcase the breadth of Dubai’s destination offering.
“The potential of Uganda as a source market is positive, and this road show provides us with the opportunity to directly interact with the operators here, to showcase what Dubai has to offer them,” said Issam Kazim, CEO at Dubai Tourism.
Dubai continues to be a popular tourist destination for Kenyan travellers, with over 64,000 visiting the city last year, a 19.9 per cent increase over the previous year. Overall, Dubai saw a 13.7 per cent increase in travellers from these three East African countries last year.
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Sudhir Sreedharan, SVP Commercial Operations at flydubai (GCC, Africa & Indian Sub-Continent), said: “We are committed to opening up underserved markets and providing reliable, direct air links to destinations that previously had no very few connections to Dubai. East Africa is a very important market that has shown significant growth over the past few years.”
With Dubai set to hit the 100,000 rooms milestone this month across its expanding hotel and hotel apartment inventory, the city aims to firmly position itself as a top 10 global destination in terms of available hotel supply, indicating high demand from international travellers and sustained growth in tourism volumes.
Dubai’s room supply is expected to continue to grow, reaching 138,000 rooms by the end of 2018, with a special focus on expending the budget and four star hotel offering. With demand increasing, overall projected occupancy rates through 2018 are expected to be around 77 per cent despite growth in capacity, ensuring the emirate remains a highly competitive visitation draw.
To continue to offer incredible tourist attractions, Dubai is unveiling several world-class theme parks this year, starting with IMG Worlds of Adventure, the world’s largest indoor themed destination. Due to launch at the end of August, the park will bring to life the world of Marvel comics, transport visitors back to the Jurassic age in Lost Valley – Dinosaur Adventure and feature family favourites in the Cartoon Network zone.
Another new addition to Dubai’s expansive entertainment offering will be Dubai Parks and Resorts, the largest integrated theme park destination in the region, which is scheduled to open at the end of October. The destination comprises Hollywood-inspired motiongate™ Dubai, Bollywood Parks™, a first-of-its-kind entertainment theme park that brings the Bollywood experience to life, and the region’s first LEGOLAND® Park, complete with a LEGOLAND® Water Park.
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