Spotlight on Dubai at Moscow Tourism and Travel Exhibition

Dubai, an established business and leisure destination for Russians over the past decade, is set to be under the spotlight with an estimated 100,000 buyers from across Russia expected to visit the trade fair. The MITT-2009 is being attended by over 3,000 exhibitors from 118 countries and regions.

Speaking at the inaugural ceremony in the presence of H.E Omer Saif Ghobash, UAE ambassador to Russia, Mr. Eyad Ali Abdul Rahman, DTCM Executive Director of Media Relations and Acting Director of Business Development, said Dubai's strong participation in this exhibition reflects the importance DTCM and its industry partners attach to the Russian market. DTCM has been operating a representative office in Moscow since the past 13 years, covering the Russian, CIS and Baltics.

"As one of largest travel industry event in the world, MITT is an ideal platform to reach out to the world. Dubai Stand is showcasing the best tourism products offering and holiday packages for the industry and potential visitors," said Mr. Eyad, who headed the Dubai delegation.

The delegation included Mr. Abdullah bin Suwaidan, DTCM Deputy Director of Overseas Promotions, and Mr. Talal Al Suwaidi, DTCM Head of India, Middle East and North Africa Section at Overseas Promotions.

This year, Dubai Stand size is 450 square meters, 55% bigger than the previous year. The 450 square metres double-decker stand features 52 co-participants from Dubai's tourism industry at the MITT, which is among the top five tourism industry exhibitions in the world.

He said, "Dubai hotels posted high record revenues of over Dhs15.25bn ($4.1bn) and 15.9% increase in number of rooms in 2008.This is fairly good as the global tourism industry is facing one of the most economically-challenging times."

"Dubai hotels played host to an estimated 487,000 visitors from Russia/CIS/Baltics in 2008 which is 15% more compared to 2007 with 473,037 visitors. This shows the solid standing of the emirate's expanding tourism industry. The interest of Russian travel trade and tourists in Dubai remains strong and highly motivating," Mr. Eyad added.

Dubai is launching on March 19 a three-month familiarization tours programme targeting 1700 tour operators and MICE agents and 300 Media representatives.

This programme is being done by DTCM in cooperation with Emirates Airlines and Dubai Naturalisation and Residency Administration and other key players of tourism industry.

With an estimated expenditure of Dhs50m ($14m), this is the only programme of its kind to be launched by a destination. It will cover as many as 60 countries. The first group of Russian participants will arrive in Dubai in the fourth week of April. This will be followed by another group in first week of May, in time for the Arabian Travel Market (ATM) that is held under DTCM's patronage.

Dubai co-participants are showcasing the best of Dubai's tourism product offering and networking with the local travel and tourism industry players.