Abu Dhabi: The Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority's agenda for this year is nothing short of ambitious. It aims to deliver 1.9 million hotel guests at the 22,000 hotel rooms in the emirate and together contribute 11.1 per cent to Abu Dhabi's non-oil GDP.
"These targets will mean a 15 per cent rise on the 2010 hotel guest target, an increase of over 5,000 hotel rooms and a 0.4 per cent increase in overall non-oil GDP contribution," Lawrence Franklin, ADTA's strategy and policy director, told Gulf News.
At the same time, the authority is working to bring about subtle changes to the visitor profile Abu Dhabi attracts. "During 2011 we hope to shift the current business tourism dominated hotel guest profile to a more balanced business/leisure tourism split," said Franklin.
"We are confident we can achieve this because our leisure proposition has, and will, continue to grow."
"We have taken a major leap forward on the leisure scene with the recent opening of Ferrari World Abu Dhabi, the world's biggest indoor theme park. More intense focus on the leisure segment is in line with our strategy of increasing overall length of stay."
ADTA is collating final hotel guest statistics for 2010. "However, it looks almost certain that the destination will have surpassed the 2010 target of 1.65 million guests as by the end of November — the figures had come within a whisker of that total," he added. According to ADTA, around 1.54 million guests stayed in hotels throughout the emirate in 2009. Guest arrivals rose from 960,000 in 2004 to over 1.5 million in 2009.
In 2009, Abu Dhabi's main source markets for hotel guests were Britain, the US, India, Germany, Egypt, France, Saudi Arabia and Italy.
Diversification
"We are looking for a wider geographic footprint, diversifying to complement our traditional Euro-centric markets with emerging source markets in line with evolving industry dynamics," said Franklin.
He said promotional activities being carried out in new markets such as Russia, Saudi Arabia and the US — and where the ADTA is set to open offices — will be supported by the six existing overseas offices and the roll out of Phase Two of ADTA's global advertising campaign.
"In addition, we will participate in 18 trade fairs during 2011 with first-time participation in shows in Russia, [South] Korea and the US," he said. "These new shows have been selected to emphasise our push into the Russian and American markets and to leverage and support the new Etihad services from Seoul to Abu Dhabi International.
"Two destination milestones which will enhance our prospects during 2011 are the home porting of MSC Cruises' vessel MSC Lirica from October and the hosting of the third leg of the 2011-12 Volvo Ocean Race at the end of the year."
The Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority has a five-year plan under which it hopes to attract 2.7 million hotel guests a year.
Etihad Airways is aiming to fly 25 million passengers a year by 2020 and expand its network to up to 100 business and leisure destinations. It's currently flying on 66 routes and has 57 aircraft in its fleet.
"[Tourism] will stimulate and diversify the economy, generate new private sector opportunities and elevate the emirate's international standing," the Executive Council of Abu Dhabi has said in its policy agenda.
Louvre Abu Dhabi and the Zayed National Museum on Saadiyat Island should be ready in September 2013 and the Guggenheim Museum is set to open its doors to visitors in December 2013.
