DTCM discuss new initiatives to promote Dubai tourism

Held at the DTCM Head Office, the meeting was chaired by the DTCM Director General, Mr. Khalid A bin Sulayem, and attended by Mr. Mohammed Khamis bin Hareb, DTCM Executive Director for Operations and Marketing, and Mr. Eyad Ali Abdul Rahman, DTCM Executive Director Media Relations and Acting Director Business Development. It was attended by representatives from the hotels and tourism companies.

The meeting reviewed the global tourism industry market trends and a number of new initiatives aimed at attracting more visitors to Dubai from across the world, especially the Arabian Gulf Cooperation Council (AGCC) states, and boosting hotel occupancies which remained during the months of January and February this year.

Mr. bin Sulayem said the new initiatives over the remainder of the year will help generate even better levels of hotel occupancies and help draw more tourists from different parts of the world.

During the meeting, it was agreed that the hoteliers will offer best rates and holiday packages to the visitors, especially during the summer months, details of which will be announced in due course.

The high occupancy levels recorded by hotels since the start of this year has prompted the DTCM and its tourism industry partners to come out with new initiatives to capitalize on the encouraging market scene.

Dubai retained its strong position with its hotels posting all-time high record revenues of Dhs15.25bn and a double-digit increase in room inventory in 2008, one of the most economically-challenging times for the global tourism industry.

Dubai hotel establishments played a host to 6,996,449 guests in 2008, up from 6,951,798 visitors in the previous year. In 2004, Dubai hotels received 5.4m guests followed by 6.16m in 2005.

The slight increase in guest numbers enabled Dubai hotels and hotel apartment posting Dhs15.25bn in revenues, an impressive increase of 15% over the previous year.

In the year 2007, the revenues were to the tune of Dhs13.26bn on the back of a 22.4% growth.

A 15.9% increase was also recorded in the number of hotel rooms and hotel apartments, which stood at 49,598. In 2007, the number of hotel rooms and hotel apartments were 42,807 after a 4.8% growth over the previous year.

The tourism and hotel sectors directly contribute 19% to Dubai's GDP, while their indirect contribution to GDP stands at 32% in 2008. In the last week of February, the average occupancy of five-star beach hotels was 95% with the average room rate for the five-star hotel being Dhs1239.

A three-month familiarization programme -Keep Discovering Dubai- targeting 2000 tour operators, MICE agents and Media representatives had been launched by DTCM in cooperation with Emirates Airlines and other key players of Dubai's tourism industry to provide them a hands-on experience of Dubai.