to be continued....
“There is no doubt that the GCC is proving to be receptive to Abu Dhabi’s expanding tourism and events proposition. ADTA and its stakeholders will look to further grow region returns via additional marketing initiatives. These will include a destination road show across Saudi Arabia and Qatar planned for October, which will spell out Abu Dhabi’s dynamic events programme for the next five months and its increasingly expansive hospitality offering, which will see a slew of luxury beachfront resorts, city centre hotels, expanded retail offer and visitor attractions coming on line,” added Franklin.
Over the next five months Abu Dhabi will deliver the Monte-Carlo Beach Club Saadiyat, The St. Regis Saadiyat Island Resort, The Park Hyatt Abu Dhabi Hotel and Villas, The Westin Abu Dhabi Golf Resort & Spa, Jumeirah Etihad Towers, Rocco Forte Abu Dhabi, the expansive Ritz Carlton Grand Canal Abu Dhabi, Hyatt Capital Gate and the Wadi Adventure waterpark in Al Ain.
In November the UAE capital will host the third F1™ Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix and Abu Dhabi Art, which for the first time will be held in the UAE Pavilion which attracted over two million visitors at this year’s World Expo in Shanghai and which is being re-erected on Saadiyat Island. In December the destination will host World Green Tourism Abu Dhabi and the year-end arrival of the Volvo Ocean Race fleet, which will see the city host a fortnight of celebrations in a purpose-built destination village on Abu Dhabi Corniche. The celebrations, which include in-port racing, will run into the new year and will quickly be followed by the PGA European Tour-backed Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Tournament.
“It’s action all the way over the coming months which we anticipate will see us achieve our 2011 stretch target of 2 million hotel guests, a rise of 10.5% on last year, and leave us well placed to begin 2012 on a high,” said Franklin. “We will also be aided by expanding air access with the Czech carrier CSA entering the market with four Prague-Abu Dhabi flights a week from September 21 and Etihad, the UAE’s national carrier, launching a four times a week, no-stop service from Chengdu, China’s south-west economic hub in mid December.”
The first seven months of this year has seen Abu Dhabi welcome 1,231,290 hotel guests – a 15% increase on the same period last year, which equates to 3,604,233 guest nights.
Year-to-date occupancy levels are up 10% to 70%, revenues are up 6% to AED 2.53 billion (US $690 million) and the average length-of-stay is up 11% to 2.93 nights. The UK remains the top international source market with a 21% increase in guest nights to 354,155. The US comes in second place at 282,510 – a 26% year-on-year rise and India third representing 235,695 guests – up 52% on 2010.
“India is proving an increasingly productive source market which we will activate further with our first trade and media road show across three Indian cities being staged mid September in conjunction with stakeholders,” explained Franklin. “France and Germany are also proving to be stalwarts with year-on-year increases of 27% and 17% respectively.”