Taj Palace Hotel Dubai targets Central Asia

For Kazakhstan, outbound tourism will climb at least 20% in 2011, according to members of Kazakhstan's Tourism Association.

"As well as continuing to consolidate our relationships with key feeder markets from the GCC, we have identified a number of emerging markets this year, particularly Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan who for various reasons are starting to see Dubai as an attractive tourist and business destination." said Andreas Mueller general manager Taj Palace Hotel Dubai.

"With the current unrest around the region the range of destination options for these travellers has been significantly reduced and we see this as an opportunity to showcase Dubai and our property." he added.

The hotel saw a small number of arrivals from both of these countries last year and is forecasting a significant increase in the number of visitors from both Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan of 5% for this year. They will be targeting FIT and corporate groups as well as the MICE segments.

"Our strategy involves making more trips to these new destinations and working closely with DTCM and tour operators to introduce our property to the key players." said Mueller.

"We are quietly optimistic about business this year as we seeing a positive growth in the tourism sector despite the room inventory increase." Mueller added.

The Taj Palace is a well established city family leisure hotel and is renowned for its large rooms.

The standard room category offers 61 square metres of luxury. It also has a number of apartments which are particularly attractive for families during the long summer months when they need more space.