Abu Dhabi is looking to tap into India's growing outbound tourism market following a spectacular growth in Indian visitors to the emirate.
Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority (ADTA) and 12 of its key stakeholders will undertake its first Indian roadshow next week taking in Mumbai, New Delhi and Chennai.
In the first seven months of this year, India rose to become Abu Dhabi’s second largest international source market for hotel guests after the UK, accounting for 58,724 guests – a 25% rise on the same period in 2010.
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In terms of guest nights in the first seven months, India was the third largest international source market after the UK and USA accounting for 235,695 – a 52% rise on the same period last year.
“There are strong air links between India and Abu Dhabi with routes between the two currently being served by Air India, Jet Airways and our own national airline, Etihad Airways, which operates a total of 52 flights a week covering eight Indian cities. The excellent air access, allied with market proximity and close business and social ties between Abu Dhabi and India, provides us with a strong competitive advantage to capitalise on the undoubted growth potential of India’s outbound tourism market. This point has increasingly been recognised by our tourism stakeholders who are also stepping up their own in-market activations,” said Dayne Lim, product development director, ADTA.
“Our aim for this inaugural road show in India is three-fold; to showcase Abu Dhabi’s expanding range of hospitality, events and attractions products, strengthen the distribution and packaging channels of these products, as well as deepen our market insights for valuable input to our future product development.”
India has one of the fastest growing outbound travel sectors worldwide - the number of Indians travelling aboard annually exceeded 16 million by the end of 2010, and double-digit growth rates are forecast over this decade.
“We have been monitoring the Indian outbound market for some time and now, in line with our infrastructural and product expansions as well as support from our valued stakeholders, is the opportune time for us to capitalise,” concluded Lim.
Abu Dhabi hotel group Rotana will be joining the tour. It has opened an outbound sales office in India describing it as a “key feeder market” for the 10 properties it operates throughout Abu Dhabi emirate.
“The objective is to increase our market share whether business or leisure outbound travelers to all Rotana properties,” said Omer Kaddouri, Executive Vice President & Chief Operating Officer, Rotana.
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