German tourists love Dubai and its tourism products offering

DTCM focus on strategies for consolidating Dubai’s standing

33 per cent increase in co-participants of Dubai Stand

 The Dubai Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing has announced that Dubai tourism industry will have, for the third successive year, a strong presence in the 2012 edition of ITB, the world’s biggest travel and tourism fair, to be held in Berlin from March 7 to 11.

This will be 23rd successive year participation of Dubai in the International Tourism Bourse (ITB). Dubai Stand will measure 528 square metres and will be shared by 115 co-participants, 33 per cent increase from the previous edition’s participation. Dubai Stand (Number 103) will be located in Hall 22 in Messegelande Berlin.

A strong Dubai delegation will include senior government officials representing DTCM, General Directorate of Residency & Foreigners Affairs-Dubai, Dubai Convention Bureau, Dubai Cruise Terminal-DP World, Dubai Camel Racing Club and Dubai Events & Promotions Establishment (DSF, DSS and Eid in Dubai). Also participating are prominent hotels and hotel apartments, tour operators, DMCs and tourism companies.

With more than 170,000 visitors, among these 108,000 trade visitors, and over 10,000 exhibitors from 180 countries ITB Berlin is the leading B2B-Platform of all tourism industry offers. In addition, the world’s largest tourism convention provides unique opportunities to benefit from the leading think tank of the global tourism industry. All levels of the value added chain are present: Tour operators, booking engines, destinations, airlines, and hotels right through to car rental companies.

“For us, 2011 was another successful year at ITB in Berlin. The response from the travel trade industry has been overwhelming to DTCM and the co-participants who shared the Dubai Stand. We are going to participate in the ITB 2012 strongly to continue reaping benefits of our previous years’ participation,” said Mr. Al Geziry at the meeting which was also addressed by Asma Mohammed Ali, Head of Region East & West Europe at DTCM’s Overseas Promotions and Inward Missions.

DTCM will be introducing several initiatives like Definitely Dubai Apps and joint promotion by DTCM and Emirates airline at the ITB-2012.

Germany has remained an important for Dubai and German tourists have been coming to Dubai for the past five decades or so – much before the tourism industry evolved here. In 2010, as many as 1,857,713 German nationals passed through the Dubai Airport, while their numbers went up to 1,309,540 in the first nine month of 2011. Germany is among the strongest markets served in terms of total passenger numbers by the Dubai Airport.

Dubai hotel establishments played a host to about nine million guests last year, posting a healthy growth compared with the previous year. Over 275,000 German tourists stayed with the Dubai hotel establishments in 2011, thereby placing Germany on the sixth position on Dubai’s top 10 source markets for tourism industry.