Abu Dhabi - Mubasher: Abu Dhabi aims to increase the number of tourists from its main offices in 10 major countries in addition to GCC to about 1.824 million by the end of this year, compared to 1.49 million in 2015.
Sultan Al Dhaheri, Acting Executive Director of tourism sector in Abu Dhabi Authority for Tourism and Culture, said that the authority focuses on increasing the number of tourists despite the economic difficulties witnessed by most of the world countries, such as the drop in major global currencies in addition to slowdown in China’s economy.
There is a focus on some alternative markets, such as India, South Africa and GCC to offset the difficult economic conditions facing some other countries, Al Dhaheri added.
He stated that the authority seeks to increase the number of GCC’s tourists by 26% from 269,600 last year to 350,500 by the end of 2016.
It is targeting also the Indian market with more than 336,000 tourists, as well as Russia (30,100), China (248,000) and Australia (67.700).
The official also added that about 277,600 tourist are expected from the U.K., Germany (170,400), France (62,800), Italy (73,800), U.S. (177,200) and South Africa (30,060).
Mubarak Al Nuaimi, director of promotion and overseas offices in Abu Dhabi Authority for Tourism and Culture, said that Abu Dhabi succeeded in attracting more than 4.1 million tourists last year, above the target of 3.9 million tourists with an increase of 18% against 2014.
According to Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority statistics for 2015, the number of tourists increased by 18% or 4.105 million guests versus 3.49 million in 2014.
Total hotel revenue rose by 5% to AED6.62 billion ($1 billion), including AED3.48 billion ($1 million) hotel room revenue with an increase 7% and AED2.32 billion activities foods and beverages revenue with a decline 1%.
Abu Dhabi aims to attract more tourists in the coming years by opening offices for tourism marketing in several countries.
