UAE’s Lama Group – which operates one of the country’s most successful Destination Management Companies (DMC) - is setting up a dedicated subsidiary, LAMA Tours & Holidays, in Abu Dhabi to leverage the emirate’s growing stature as a “stand-alone” destination.
Lama Tours & Holidays, with an initial complement of seven, full-time staff, will open before Eid operating from an office in Abu Dhabi’s Tourist Club area and targeting its inbound operations on four specific sectors – Mice , Weddings, Free Independent Traveller (FIT) and Digital Media.
The move comes as LAMA identifies significant potential for Abu Dhabi which the group’s managing director, Kulwant Singh, says is becoming recognised as “a new, welcoming destination with high end accommodation.”
Lama currently accounts for over 150,000 Indian visitors annually to the UAE and is also marketing F1 packages to Indian visitors.
“This will provide a major boost for hotel guest tally from India which has been growing monthly over the past 18 months,” said Mubarak Al Muhairi, director general of Abu Dhabi Tourism & Culture Authority (TCA Abu Dhabi). “India is now the emirate’s second largest overseas source market for hotel guests and the potential, given the expanding air access between the destinations and the close proximity in terms of flying time, is such that we now have the country firmly in our sights for our overseas promotional office network expansion.”
Four carriers currently fly from India to Abu Dhabi International Airport and Etihad Airways, the national airline of the UAE, is planning to launch flights from Ahmadabad this November – its ninth India destination.
“We have been given significant support from TCA Abu Dhabi for this move, which will help us sell the emirate to the Mice segment, particularly out of India, for the growing Indian wedding market which is keen on the UAE, for the FIT sector, which is always keen on unearthing new destinations and on the digital media sector, in particular for locations for Bollywood movie shooting and premieres,” said Singh.
“We have been working in the Abu Dhabi market on various Mice contracts and with all the infrastructure and attractions growth which has come on line, the emirate is now being increasingly seen as a stand alone destination.”
Lama, which is headquartered in Dubai and currently handles between 60 -70 per cent of the Indian inbound traffic into the UAE, says potential is also high to market Dubai and Abu Dhabi as a two centre UAE stay.
“Currently our average stay in Dubai is 2.5 nights which, if we add on Abu Dhabi, we could expand into a UAE stay of 4.5 nights particularly given the fact that one visa will serve both destinations making it easier and more cost-effective for the Indian traveller,” added Kulwant.
The digital media segment, says Kulwant, could prove a rich vein for Abu Dhabi which “has the diversity of locations that would appeal.” Lama currently acts as turnkey ground handler for around 50 per cent of all Indian digital media requirements coming into the UAE.
“The office opening is phase one of a long-term development plan for the UAE capital,” said Kulwant. “We will market it in conjunction with Abu Dhabi stakeholders with a four-city road show in India where travellers are becoming aware of the emirate and increasingly curious about what it has to offer.
“Once we have gained traction with our initial development phase, we will give serious consideration to moving into product development within the emirate,” explained Kulwant.
In the first six months of this year some 65,519 Indian nationals stayed in Abu Dhabi’s hotels and hotel apartments – a 31 per cent rise on the same period last year. They accounted for 234,043 guest nights – a 15 per cent increase on the first six months of last year.