Dubai Tourism is renewing its focus on the India market with the Dubai Department of Economy and Tourism tying up with travel agents from tier 2 and 3 cities, as well as with local content creators like Bhuvan Bam. The department said about 9.1 lakh visitors from India visited Dubai in calendar year 2021, which was a growth of 12.5% year-on-year.
India, it added, continues to prove crucial to Dubai’s long-term tourism growth, with the Asian powerhouse consistently ranking among Dubai’s leading business and leisure tourism source markets. The department calculates visitors based on hotel visitations and through industry data, and said that above 70% of its visitors have been leisure travellers from India.
“In the top five or six countries, other than India we also get travellers from Oman, Saudi Arabia, UK, Russia, US, Pakistan. We also have growing numbers from Egypt,” said Bader Ali Habib, head of region- South Asia, International Operations, Dubai Department of Economy and Tourism.
The board’s current roadshow includes key tier II cities like Kolkata, Kochi, Chennai and tier I city Bengaluru. “Indian tier II cities have immense potential for outbound travel with the rise in disposable incomes and the increased demand for family, honeymoon, sports, MICE travel and have emerged as massive feeder markets for Dubai,” added Habib.
Keeping in mind the pent up demand for long weekend and festive travel in India, Dubai Tourism is planning to start campaigns for Indian travellers with all that the Emirate has to offer during Diwali. It has also tied up with local content creator, Bhuvan Bam for a digital campaign to promote summer tourism.
In the past, the board had also tied up with actor Shah Rukh Khan who was one of the brand ambassadors for the board. But that partnership ended as of early 2022.
