ADTA plans enhanced UK regional campaign

The five-star Shangri-la Hotel, Qaryat Al Beri is among those ready to benefit with negotiations now underway with two leading UK operators.

"We found the level of enquiries is of a much higher quality than last year. The interest has been mainly from the UK and it seems its outbound business is picking up after falling off earlier in the year,"

said Levent Tekun, Director of Sales & Marketing, Shangri-la Hotel, Qaryat Al Beri.

"Coverage of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix has brought the destination a lot of kudos and awareness of the destination has definitely increased. We now want to leverage this by new targeted promotions to increase leisure and group business out of this important market," he added.

Abu Dhabi's Crowne Plaza hotel is also experiencing an upturn in interest from the UK and forecasts better results from the British outbound market in 2010.

"Things are improving and there is much more movement and interest this year. There are signs that things are going to be better for 2010 as Abu Dhabi is more established with the expansion of all of Etihad's routes and the increase in Abu Dhabi's brand awareness, " said Sayed Tayoun, Director of Sales & Marketing, Crowne Plaza Abu Dhabi.

And, according to Raffi Torikian, Director of Sales & Marketing of both the Crowne Plaza Abu Dhabi Yas Island and Staybridge Suites Abu Dhabi Yas Island, the emirate is rapidly becoming the talk the of the UK market.

"Awareness of Abu Dhabi has definitely increased, people know Dubai very well but now they are hearing about Abu Dhabi and they want to know more," he said.

Last year, Abu Dhabi received some 112,173 hotel guests from the UK and 70,322 in the first nine months of this year and Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority (ADTA), which manages, helps develop and promotes the destination, is now planning an enhanced 2010 campaign to engage the high potential UK regional market.

"We plan to have a much more concentrated effort on the regions, particularly with the tour operators serving them, and this will heavily focus on the Manchester area where two-thirds of England's population alone live within a 90-minute drive of Manchester Airport from which Etihad, the UAE's national airline operates 12 flights a week to Abu Dhabi. In the pipeline is a major consumer awareness campaign throughout the UK which will, we anticipate, have significant impact on the London, Manchester, Birmingham and Belfast areas," said Jamie MacDonald, ADTA's Country Manager UK & Ireland.