Dubai: Australia’s Qantas Airways said on Tuesday it has carried more than one million passengers through Dubai since forming an alliance with Emirates last year.
The alliance has boosted tourist numbers in the emirate and the trend is expected to continue in the coming years, according to industry experts.
The two airlines together offer 98 flights per week from Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth to Dubai and over 65 destinations in the Middle East, North Africa, the UK and Europe.
Thanks to the increased number of flights, Australian visitor numbers in Dubai reached 269,000 last year, up 39 per cent compared to 2012, according to Dubai’s Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DTCM).
“Naturally there will be significant hotel spend and on-spend benefiting the Dubai economy,” said Jeff Strachan, General Manager at Insights Management Consultancy, a business consultancy with a focus on tourism, hospitality and service industries.
Luxury hotel management company Jumeirah Group said Australian guests stayed for 21,302 nights in 2013, up 89 per cent compared to 2012.
“In 2012, the percentage of business from Australian guests made up 1.5 per cent of our total hotel revenues in Dubai. In 2013, this rose to 2.6 per cent, reflecting a strong and sustained growth in business from the Australian market,” said Piers Schreiber, a spokesperson for Jumeirah Group.
Meanwhile, for Golden Sands Hotel Apartments, Australian guests grew by 30 per cent last year over 2012, while their contribution to total revenue for the year also increased by 30 per cent, according to Nives Deininger, the company’s Director of Sales.
Arabian Courtyard Hotel and Spa, meanwhile, saw guests from Australia, which is an emerging market for the hotel, contribute 7.5 per cent of its revenue last year, compared to 5.4 per cent in 2012, according to Habib Khan, the hotel’s General Manager. He said that he expects Australian guests to account for 10 per cent of the hotel’s revenue this year.
