Italy to lure Middle East, Asia with fashion, food

Dubai: A little bit of Italy will be coming to Dubai when the Italian State Tourist Board opens a bureau in this city — its first in the region.

The bureau aims to promote Italy as a tourist destination in the GCC and Middle Eastern region.

"We have to start promoting our culture and Italy as a destination, said Italian State Tourist Board director general Paolo Rubini.

"Italy is a unique place that isn't well known in this region."

Rubini said he expected the bureau would be open by the end of the year.

The office will also look to hire staff from the GCC region instead of bringing them over from Italy, to enable better communication with the local market.

"By opening this office we hope to increase the number of tourists coming from this region," Rubini said.

Rubini said he hoped to take advantage of Dubai's good transportation links to Europe. GCC residents would also be able to bene-fit from a trip to Italy, due to the weakening euro.

Low euro to benefit

"The euro is lower than last year, which is good for Dubai tourists visiting this country," Rubini said.

"And because of the crisis in Greece, we don't expect it to go up soon."

Along with increasing its presence in the GCC region, Rubini said he hoped to expand his offices into Asia, US and Australia.

"In the near future, we're looking to open our offices in each area of Asia, Australia, the US and the Middle East," he said.

"There is a big gap in the area which I'd like to solve quickly. In China, India, USA and Australia, we currently only have one office for the whole country.

"We need to have them positioned all over," he said.

The bureau has 60 per cent of its offices in Europe and 40 per cent worldwide. Rubini said he was looking to reverse this with increasing office numbers in the Middle East and Asia.

"The demographics of tourists we get into the country also reflect this," he said. "Sixty per cent of our tourists are from Europe and 40 per cent are from elsewhere," he said.