Russian market boosts UAE tourism

Russian tourists have proved resilient to the impact of the global economic downturn, and are now providing a welcome boost to the UAE tourism industry.

UAE tourism boards and airlines are undertaking an active push to try to boost the number of Russian travellers entering the country.

“This year saw a 17% increase in Russian tourists despite the recent slowdown in the global tourism industry,” said Ghassan Aridi, CEO of one of the region’s biggest inbound tour operators Alpha Tours. “The Russian market is one of the best markets to Dubai; it’s one of the top three. It’s been growing over the last 18 years; and we highly appreciate the business from that region.”

Aridi was speaking at the launch of the sixth annual Natalie Tours congress – held by one Russia’s biggest tour operators in Dubai. Around 200 Russian travel agents attended this year’s conference, at the Atlantis Hotel, where they learned more about how to sell Dubai as a destination.

According to Natalia Vorobieva, CEO of Natalie Tours, Dubai is emerging as a favoured destination among Russian holidaymakers. Natalie Tours currently brings around 69,000 Russian tourists into Dubai every year, and Vorobieva said she is anticipating an increase of 50 percent on this figure thanks to growing interest in the destination and new flight links to Russian cities.

“The emirate is growing as a promising destination. Even during the crisis period it was very stable, and in Russia we recovered quite quickly from the crisis. We are pushing to have 50 percent growth in numbers to Dubai this year, which is a very big figure,” she said.

Russian tourists are seen as vital to the touirsm industry here as one of the top-spending inbound markets. “In terms of total customer spend, customers from Russia and CIS countries rank at number one so they are vital for our business,” said Serge Zaalof, chief operating officer, Atlantis The Palm. Zaalof estimated that Russians spent on average 25/30% more in the hotel than Europeans and Australian guests.

According to the Dubai Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DTCM), 237,986 Russian guests stayed at Dubai hotels in the first half of this year – a 17% year-on-year increase compared to the same period last year, when the figure was 204,153.

These figures look to receive a further boost thanks to new flight routes launched last month by FlyDubai to Yekaterinburg, one of Russia’s largest cities; and Samara in Western Russia.

Vorobieva estimated that the new flights would bring around 400 Russians to Dubai each week from each region. She anticipated that more Russian routes would be rolled out in the coming few months.

“This is only the beginning. Later will come routes to other cities in Russia. For us it’s a very good opportunity to bring clients here with good new aircraft and competitve rates.”

Aridi added: “These flights will give a very big increase in numbers as it means people can fly in from two other regions of Russia not just Moscow. We are heavily promoting in Russia. DTCM has an office in Moscow, they go to all the exhibitions.”

Abu Dhabi is also ploughing its energies into attracting the Russian market. According to the Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority (ADTA) hotels in Abu Dhabi have seen a 21% increase in Russian guests in the first seven months of this year.

Last month ADTA opened a visitor centre in central Moscow. The office was launched at Leisure Moscow – Russia’s leading travel exhibition – where Abu Dhabi mounted a huge pavilion shared by 10 key partners including Etihad, which operates a daily Moscow-Abu Dhabi service.

ADTA is now planning an intensive Russian promotional campaign, involving fam trips with Russian travel trade and media. The emirate is also recruiting Russian speaking tour guides and plans to launch Russian language marketing material and brochures.

Mubarak Al Muhairi, director general, ADTA said: “Russia is showing great promise for us and we are now looking to capitalise on these green shoots of growth.”