Top Russian tour operators eye double-digit Abu Dhabi bookings growth

The upward targets were set during a meeting between the two operators, Abu Dhabi Tourism & Culture Authority (TCA Abu Dhabi) and the UAE destination management company Arabian Adventures on the sidelines of Leisure Moscow - one of the Federation's biggest travel fairs.

"We will support the operators by jointly holding educational programmes, seminars, workshops and presentations for their clients to help them attain these targets," explained Edward Grigoriev, TCA Abu Dhabi's Country Manager, Russia and CIS.

"Each day of this exhibition we have been jointly presenting the destination to Russian travel agencies in co-ordination with Etihad Airways. In total, more than 70 agencies belonging to the major operators Russian Express, Art Tour and Coral Travel have been updated on Abu Dhabi's expanding destination offering and have had individual meetings with Abu Dhabi stakeholders," Edward added.

Grigoriev also disclosed that TCA Abu Dhabi has held negotiations with the Association of Travel Agencies of South of Russia.

"This has resulted in an agreement to jointly stage destination education campaigns for companies in South Russia. This will results in Abu Dhabi being featured in the brochures of local travel agencies and new two centre Abu Dhabi-Dubai being developed to leverage Air Arabia's plans to launch flights from Rostov-on-Don, Southern Russia's administrate capital, to the United Arab Emirates," he explained.

A 16-strong delegation from Abu Dhabi's tourism industry, including hotels, resorts, Etihad Airways, inbound tour operators and Destination Management Companies, is at Leisure Moscow. The destination push comes as the latest TCA Abu Dhabi figures show some 10,889 Russians stayed in Abu Dhabi's hotels during the first eight months of this year - a 39% increase on the same period in 2011.

"Russia has now entered the Top 20 of our most productive international markets," explained Mubarak Al Nuaimi, International Promotions Manager, TCA Abu Dhabi. "From January to the end of August Russian guests have delivered 62,139 guest nights for Abu Dhabi - which is an increase of 45% on last year - and, perhaps most significantly, they are among our longest stayers, achieving an average-length-of-stay of 5.71 nights."

Russians' air access to Abu Dhabi has eased during the last seven months with Etihad Airways, the national airline of the UAE flying daily from Moscow and the country's first private carrier, TransAero initiating twice-weekly, non-stop flights for tour operator bookings to Abu Dhabi.

The Leisure Moscow participation is among a number of initiatives TCA Abu Dhabi is undertaking this month to stimulate increased response from the Russian and CIS markets. Others include road shows in Kiev in the Ukraine and Almaty, Kazakhstan.