TCA Abu Dhabi aggressively targets Chinese visitors
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The Abu Dhabi Tourism & Culture Authority (TCA Abu Dhabi) is working closely with its industry stakeholders on a number of key initiatives aimed at increasing number of Chinese visitors to the emirate and encouraging a longer length of stay.
These initiatives were spelt out at the third Chinese Visitor Summit which is being attended by 75 top Chinese travel agents and tour operators.
Mubarak Al Shamisi, director, Abu Dhabi Convention Bureau said: “The emirate has made significant progress in number of Chinese it attracts to its hotels but there is still room for growth. At the launch of this summit three years ago, China had just entered our Top 20 markets for hotel guests, today it is our 8th most productive overseas market.”
In the first half of this year, some 59,518 Chinese checked into Abu Dhabi’s hotels and resorts – which was a 189% increase on the first half of 2013. The Chinese guests delivered 105,915 guest nights, which was up 171% year-on-year.
Al Shamisi further added: “Our Chinese guests don’t stay with us long enough – just 1.78 nights on average – we want more Chinese guests and we want those that do come to stay longer.”
Al Shamisi explained that TCA Abu Dhabi has worked closely with stakeholders to identify the specifics of the Chinese tourist requirements and is looking to now meet them. “We are now encouraging our stakeholders to sign up for the Chinese Tourism Academy’s hotel classification standard and the initial response has been very good.”
Some of the plans adopted include hotels and resorts with Chinese speakers, Chinese stations on in-house TV and acceptance of China Union Pay, kettles and tea-sets in rooms and Chinese dishes on the menus and buffets among others
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