ABU DHABI Tourism Authority (ADTA) is to step up its international promotional programme in 2010 with appearances at 20 overseas fairs – three more than 2009.
The authority will participate for the first time at Spain’s FITUR and India’s SATTE, both of which will be held in January, and MATTA in Malaysia in March.
And in a move to encourage stakeholders to engage in the intensified programme, ADTA is pegging its industry participation fees for major fairs to take into account market maturity and discounting fees for emerging markets by between 11 and 50 per cent.
“Trade and consumer shows are important tools for destinations and their products to disseminate their offers, engage with in-market distribution partners and ultimately to generate business,” said Mubarak Al Nuaimi, the authority’s international promotions manager.
“They are particularly important forums for emerging destinations such as ours which are building awareness.
“We recognise that individual levels of interest in industry participation, driven by perceptions of market relevance, return on investment and global economic conditions, may vary. In many cases larger, well-established shows in mature markets will be more popular than their equivalents in emerging or growth markets.
“ADTA as a destination marketing authority is charged with building and maintaining Abu Dhabi’s presence across a balanced and diversified portfolio of markets including those in maturing, growth and emerging phases. To ensure we have a significant footprint on the international promotional calendar which truly reflects the strength of Abu Dhabi’s tourism offer, we are prepared to consider temporarily discounting participation fees for shows in some growth or emerging markets.
“Our research shows that market awareness of Abu Dhabi as a tourism destination is still relatively limited, especially among the rapidly-expanding middle-upper income classes and we are looking to address this gap.”