HE Khalid Ahmed bin Sulayem, Director General, Dubai Department of Tourism & Commerce Marketing HE Khalid Ahmed bin Sulayem, Director General, Dubai Department of Tourism & Commerce Marketing

8

HE Khalid Ahmed bin Sulayem
Director General, Dubai Department of Tourism & Commerce Marketing

For continuing to promote Dubai’s hospitality sector and offering support to hoteliers, against a back drop of the economic downturn and negative media in some key feeder markets, the Dubai Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DTCM) director general HE Khalid Ahmed Bin Sulayem steps up to eighth place in the Power 50.

Story continues below
Advertisement

The DTCM has come a long way since its establishment in 1997, replacing the Dubai Commerce and Tourism Promotion Board (DCTPB), and Sulayem has been there since the start.

In that time he has led the principal authority for the planning, supervision and development of tourism in Dubai. Bin Sulayem also directly oversees all of the planning and implementation of Dubai’s international promotion and marketing programmes.

The department currently has a network of 18 overseas representative offices, serving all the geographical regions of the world, and Bin Sulayem has been instrumental in chairing meetings with all stakeholders to examine ways to further boost tourist inflow to Dubai.

The approach seems to be working — Dubai recorded a 10.4% year-to-date occupancy increase in Q1, according to Deloitte analysis of selected STR Global hotel performance data for the Middle East.

Deloitte cited the city’s “promotional strategies” as a major factor in the positive figures that bucked the overall downward trend for the Middle East region. Occupancy figures rose from 71.6% to 79% in the year-to-date March comparison, and even in July, occupancy was up from 68.4% to 72.2% in the year-to-date comparison.

RevPAR and ADR have fallen in Dubai but only marginally — year to date June 2010 revPAR was US $166.16, a decline of 3.5%. Overall, Dubai produces some of the world’s highest revPAR figures.

And in addition to growing visitor numbers, Bin Sulayem has been involved in revamping Dubai’s hotel classification system — to be announced by the end of 2010 .